Pirates, Miracles and the Flavours of Times Gone By: a Day Trip to Rapallo

It was 2 July 1557 and it was very hot. The farmer Giovanni Chichizola, returning from Rapallo's fruit and vegetable market, had to pass through the dangerous Monte Letho, that is, the mountain of death, so called because of the numerous raids by bandits. Exhausted by tiredness and heat, he fell asleep on a rocky spur. He was woken by a sudden flash. A beautiful lady dressed in blue and white appeared to the farmer and, in a firm but very gentle tone, told him: "Go to Rapallo and tell the Christians that I wish to be honoured here". Before disappearing from Chichizola's eyes, the Madonna gave him an icon: a panel of poplar wood depicting Mary's transit into heaven. Today that mountain is called Montallegro, and there, at 612 metres of altitude, stands the Marian sanctuary, erected in 1558, as the Virgin requested.

This wonderful sacred place is the first stop of our trip to Rapallo, and climbing up there, bend after bend, also gives us the emotion of gazing over the dense woods that clothe the wild heights above the town. From the churchyard of the sanctuary a breathtaking view opens up over the stretch of the Gulf of Tigullio in which Rapallo is situated. Coming down into the town, we take a walk along the seafront, discovering that the terrible Ottoman pirate Dragut attacked Rapallo in 1549, plundering the town and taking numerous slaves. To avoid similar tragedies in future, a castle was built in an unusual position, directly on the seafront. Today that evocative manor is each year the protagonist of a re-enactment in which it is symbolically set on fire during a fireworks display.

On the seafront we also notice a round Art Nouveau building, with a beautifully frescoed ceiling: it is the Chiosco della Musica (Music Kiosk): inaugurated in 1929, the Kiosk was donated to the town by Rapallo emigrants in Chile. In the 1930s the square around it was often packed with people listening to band concerts, and to classical music too. That art is in the DNA of the people of Rapallo can also be understood by visiting their numerous splendid churches, including the Gothic monastic complex of Valle Christi and the Basilica, dedicated since 1118 to Saints Gervasius and Protasius. The Basilica, with its octagonal dome visible from many points of the town, has been remodelled numerous times, and also suffered much damage over the centuries: the most recent dates back to 1944, when the Allies bombed Rapallo, causing casualties inside the building and the collapse of the right nave.

During our walk we notice at a certain point a splendid tower, tall and slender, emerging at the end of one of the very colourful alleys of the centre: it is the Torre Civica, built in 1443, in addition to Rapallo's older church: the Pieve di Santo Stefano, already existing in 1155. After this lovely tour, pleasantly tired and hungry, we decide to stop for dinner at the Ristorante da Romina, located a short distance from the Rapallo motorway exit. We leave the car in the restaurant's car park and in a few steps reach the entrance, decorated with a floral arrangement and with a bicycle that recalls the bucolic atmosphere of the countryside. Welcoming us inside the spacious establishment is the owner, together with the chef. Completing the staff is the owner's polyglot wife, also very good at making desserts and at making the restaurant's rooms more beautiful and welcoming every day.

Their management, begun in April 2018, was born from the fortunate meeting between the long-experienced Rapallo cook, also trained at Slow Food, and the owner, a true enthusiast of Ligurian traditions, especially the gastronomic ones. The proprietor arrived at this establishment after years of work at a historic restaurant in Lerma, in the Alessandria area, where he had made a name for himself in particular for his pizza, thin, exquisite and easy to digest. It is rare to meet someone who works with such authentic enthusiasm and such deep attention to detail as he does. "This place must be about forty years old and traditionally it was the classic out-of-town trattoria of the people of Rapallo who, to escape mass tourism, came here to eat well. There wasn't even a menu; every day there were a few dishes available, but good ones, done properly.

There were 4-5 trattorias like this on the street, but little by little they all closed because the young people didn't want to carry on their fathers' work; only this one survived, albeit with its ups and downs. Now our goal is to bring the trattoria back to life as it was thirty years ago; we're trying to create what Rapallo doesn't have. Our motto is simplicity and tradition," the owner explains as we settle into the welcoming veranda, whose windows look out onto the silent street and the surrounding landscape, while the images on the walls take us on a journey into the Rapallo of times gone by, with some amusing scenes from films and beautiful decorative plates from various Italian and European cities too.

"We're working to attract people trained in taste, people who want to eat really well, who are neither spoiled nor victims of ready-made foods and other supposed conveniences of our times that are only good for uprooting the young," he says, as the chef tells us about traditional local recipes, including the pansoti born right in these parts, or the prebuggiun, the typical Ligurian mix of wild herbs that used to be gathered in the meadows, a healthy habit to revive. "For these things I believe it is essential to have an Italian cook, and from this area. We're bringing out recipes from thirty years ago, and we make dishes that must be as written in the books that constitute the historical memory of the local food and wine culture," says the owner.

As well as using only quality raw materials from the local area, some precious and in some ways surprising ingredients are also used: time and flame. "We could turn up at the restaurant every evening around 6, but instead we're here from 9 in the morning; the time we dedicate to preparing the dishes makes the difference. The homemade pasta, the jams we prepare ourselves, the slow cooking of the meat, as well as the leavening of the pizza: in all these things time is a key factor," they tell us. And so the moment arrives to start tasting some good things: we begin with the pizza, in fact, thin, distinctive and extremely good, born from long research into the ingredients – no fewer than three types of mozzarella are used, and this is only one of the secrets behind the success of these highly digestible pizzas. Another factor that makes them so good is the leavening time, a full 24 hours.

"You don't need exaggerated quantities of yeast, but you do need the right time. Then it's the flames of the wood-fired oven that complete the work; in fact, in our view the flame is an ingredient too. At the start of dinner I always have a few slices of this pizza tasted, and the fact that their lightness has managed to win over even several initially sceptical octogenarians is a great satisfaction for me. Our pizza sits heavy on no one's stomach". After tasting it too, ranging across the numerous flavours available, from the classics to the more special ones such as the vegetarian, the creamy, the indulgent or the fish ones, we can confirm it's all true: they are delicious, substantial and light at the same time, and after eating them, sleeping peacefully will certainly not be a problem.

Moving on to the specialities on the menu, we start with a Maremonti starter that reflects the restaurant's geographical position in its name as well as in its components, which range from swordfish and stuffed mussels to Russian salad, vegetable fritters and cured meats, just to mention the most important. Some of us also taste an exquisite old-style vitello tonnato before moving on to the typical, unmissable house pansoti with walnut sauce. Among the first courses we also find other local specialities such as the corsetti with mushroom tuccu, cut out with the pastry cutter as was once done. The black chitarrini with clams are also in great demand, but no one passes up the potato gnocchi with pesto either. We wash down these good things with excellent Ligurian and Piedmontese wines that also accompany the dishes.

Our journey through traditional flavours continues with rabbit alla ligure, the typical dish par excellence, prepared with mastery, cooked for a very long time for a truly outstanding result. Lovers of land flavours gladly taste a beef fillet with porcini sauce or the sliced fassona with rosemary, while the seafaring spirits turn to a fried squid dish or the grilled trio: swordfish, prawns and squid. Such a delicious dinner can only end in great sweetness, thanks to the homemade desserts, including tiramisu, the Baci di Dama semifreddo, panna cotta, bonet, slices of cake or sorbets. Having discovered this restaurant that brings the flavours of times gone by back to life, we are sure we'll often do as the people of Rapallo did a few decades ago: to eat well, we'll pop just outside town, to the restaurant Da Romina.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Ristorante Pizzeria Da Romina Via Savagna, 3 Rapallo Tel.: 0185/261421