So Incredible, So Enchanting: a Paradise on Earth Called La Francesca – Part I

When you stroll among the picturesque alleys of the villages of the Cinque Terre and admire that unique landscape in which the rugged rocks seem to have emerged from the sea, bringing to the surface the thousand colours of the magical underwater world, it is hard to imagine that once there was nothing here but the noise of the sea breaking on the rocks, among which echoed the cry of the gulls flying over the wild vegetation. Although the area was inhabited since prehistoric times, it was around the year 1000 that the peoples of the Val di Vara, encouraged by the waning of the Saracen threat, decided to cross the watershed of the coastal range to settle permanently on the coast, where they would found those villages that today are admired all over the world and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

To discover this unique territory by going beyond its classic postcard image, we wanted to find a way to experience it as naturally as possible, a way to touch its soul first-hand. We looked for a holiday that stood clearly apart from the usual mass tourism and that would let us confront the true character of this land. That character which, before letting you see a glimpse of the sea, leads you along an ancient winding road deep in woods that were once — not so very long ago — the target of brigands' attacks; which makes you admire pines growing almost horizontally on the slopes facing the sea; which intoxicates you with the scent of a thousand flowers, but to let you smell them makes you walk uphill. A place where the crystal-clear sea, the wonderful beach and even the pesto made by hand in the mortar remind you never to take any of it for granted.

If you are enjoying it, it means you have earned it, because you have known how to open your mind to a different way of travelling and living, eco-sustainable, human.

This special place is the La Francesca resort, in Bonassola, in a 15-hectare park that runs from the cliff up to the mountain ridge and includes 55 dwellings, between small villas and apartments, but also a myriad of plants and flowers and more: the red and green shades of certain stones remind us that the territory hides a subsoil rich in minerals with beneficial effects, where no fewer than six copper mines are found, three of whose entrances are still clearly visible.

A natural oasis born from a visionary dream, that of Gloria Bortolotti De Poli, a journalist and writer who, not yet thirty, in 1953 fell in love with this stretch of coast of harsh but irresistible charm. "At the time, getting to La Francesca from Milan took eight hours by car along narrow, winding, busy roads," recounts Marco De Poli, Mrs Gloria's son and today the owner of the resort with his wife Giovanna. "I still remember well my first trip to La Francesca. I was nine and after hours and hours of hairpin bends, when we also passed the Bracco pass, reaching the road, still winding but clear, that descended to Levanto, seemed like a liberation. To get to the sea from the Casa Gialla junction, a farmer came to our aid by opening a gap with his billhook in the almost impenetrable scrub," Mr Marco continues.

"When in 1958 it was decided to lay the road, there were people lined up on the ridge watching the work, waiting for the bulldozer to roll down at any moment, which fortunately never happened."

The "steep roads" that surrounded La Francesca, however, did not discourage the intrepid pilgrims who since the earliest times crossed its territory along the Via Francigena, from which the name of the locality may also derive, already present in Matteo Vinzoni's map of 1722. To follow ideally in the footsteps of the pilgrims of old by choosing La Francesca for a long weekend lets us discover a dimension of peace and serenity hard to find elsewhere. We are far from the noise, yet we certainly do not have to give up the comforts of our time: Levanto is a 4-minute drive away, and Bonassola can even be reached with a short walk.

In our apartment, made up of a large living room, three comfortable bedrooms facing the sea (as are all the others in the village), and two bathrooms, there is everything: from the kitchen to the fridge to Wi-Fi, but above all there is a spacious balcony opening onto a breathtaking view of the sea and the nearest cliff. Before gliding over the sea, our gaze can also roam among countless trees, shrubs and flowers. From maritime pines to olive trees, from flowering rosemary to rarities such as the Santolina ligustica that grows only on green volcanic rocks, here is a true paradise of biodiversity, also thanks to the special microclimate that allows plants to bloom in every season of the year.