A Tarzan Weekend in the Ligurian Hinterland: an Outing to Tavarone – Part II

Watching young people tackle these courses suspended between fantasy and reality, you find yourself wondering how they can be so good at it. "Simple. Many have been coming here since they were little. They started on the easy courses, made for kids, when they were five or six, and having got a taste for it they became better and better year after year. There are also many sportspeople who come to the adventure park to train before tackling real wall climbs," Nereo Giani, the owner who has run the place for ten years now with his wife Lucia Marelli, explains.

"It all began thanks to some children who had come for our educational farm and who told us enthusiastically about an adventure park in another region. So we looked into it, toured a few parks to get some ideas, and realised that this place was more than suitable to create one. Our park also has the particularity of not being spread out, everything is concentrated in one contained space," Nereo continues.

In the park the adventure courses come in four different levels of difficulty: the blue course, aimed mainly at children, is the easiest and its height does not exceed one and a half metres, though it includes little logs, suspended barrels, a sack bridge, a net bridge, planks and even the Tibetan bridge and the zip line. The one called blue-plus is at a height of between 2 and 4 metres, while the green one, of medium difficulty, reaches up to five metres. The red course is meant for sportspeople and runs from 9 to 11 metres high.

This is not a playground but equipment you need to know how to use and on which safety measures must be respected. For this reason, before going up, everyone takes part in a briefing, and during fitting the harness, as well as the safety lanyards, carabiners, pulleys and helmets, are all carefully checked by dedicated staff. "The equipment is inspected every year by an external engineer and our instructors are all experienced rescuers who have taken the relevant courses," the owners explain.

Experienced and enthusiastic, they love their work, which always takes place in contact with people, among whom there are often also cheerful groups of young people celebrating a stag do with an adventure, meaning a climb, which certainly does not upset even the future bride.

The programmes and fun for children continue on the ground too; indeed, it is the land that takes centre stage during the educational farms, designed so that the very young can get to know the woods while having fun. "If they arrive in the morning, after the adventure park they can explore the organic vegetable garden: we teach them to recognise aromatic herbs and they get hands-on sowing vegetables, for example lettuce, in little pots that the children can then take home. A group of just ten children is enough to take part in the educational farm, and as well as plants we also introduce them to the animals: cows, free-roaming horses and bees."

In good weather the green meadows, dotted with beautiful flowers and shrubs including lovely rosemary plants in bloom, are ideal for a relaxing picnic after the adventures among the tree branches. You can sit on the grass, or at the wooden tables set up in various spots, and as for the food, it is as genuine and good as you could wish. "All the products come from our organic farm and we follow the seasons, offering regional cooking," explains Lucia, a wonderful cook who delights us with a lunch to make your mouth water — those of us who have one.

We start with Ligurian-style vegetable tarts, followed by trofie al pesto, the famous regional first course, while in autumn we could enjoy tagliatelle with mushrooms. We continue with exquisite main courses prepared with the farm's own meat, enjoying among the side dishes even rare vegetables such as the fagiolana di Torza, a rare, native bean variety originating, precisely, from the nearby hamlet of Torza. To finish, we gladly give in to the temptation of traditional desserts made with the farm's jams, fruit and honey, including a delicious apple cake, blackcurrant tarts and fabulous strawberry cups. At the end of our holiday we will also stock up on jams and preserves, taking home a few jars of joy and unspoilt nature.

When, on the way back to the city, we return to the coast, an image comes to mind in which the blue soul and the green soul of Liguria overlap. We think of the sailors who worked centuries ago on the great Ligurian sailing ships: those young men climbed the masts with the same skill as the young "pirates" of the Adventure Park, which is a bit like a great sailing ship travelling through the woods. It delivers discoveries and emotions with every step you take on the little logs, the blocks and the Tibetan bridges, carrying adventurers towards ever-new horizons.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Azienda Agrituristica Biologica Giandriale Via Giandriale, 5 Tavarone (SP) Tel.: 0187/840279