Liguria Diving

Liguria is certainly one of those regions I associate with many of my memories. From the holidays spent with my parents in Sanremo as a child, the aquarium and the boat show in Genoa, but above all because its sea gave me my first serious diving experience. It was already summer when Veronica and I were to sit the exam for our first certification, the Open Water Diver; after the months spent in the pool between theory and practice, it was time to take the step, and the emotion of those days was no small thing. Ever since our trip to the Maldives, the idea of becoming divers had been buzzing in our heads; too many were the surprises and wonders the sea could offer you in its depths, and so here we are...... Levanto, a crazy heat out of the water, and us with our 7 mm wetsuits..... forget about the sauna. Of course the cool water temperature had given us some relief but....

what will happen when we leave the boat's mooring line? On the other hand, the pool was quite another thing, but.... in reality, apart from the initial tension, everything went very well. Among the things I remember most fondly is the moment when we, 6 students with our instructor, touched the sandy bottom at about 20 m depth; it was time to do the exercises but.... what a cloud of silt we'd stirred up, we could no longer see one another. The next three dives gave us more awareness and confidence in our abilities, and luckily we got the long-awaited certification. From then on a new opportunity would open up for us; today, with hindsight, I really can't regret that choice!!!

Still in Liguria, in June 2005 we decided to prepare before our trip to Malaysia and the dives at Sipadan; with our dive school, we went around Portofino, precisely to San Fruttuoso, a place famous in the world for...."The Christ of the Abyss". A fantastic day of sun, sea and landscapes that only Liguria knows how to offer. Setting off from Santa Margherita Ligure we arrived at our destination, watching the imposing cliffs overlooking the sea. Then finding yourself in front of this statue in the depths of the sea makes quite an impression, as does the little beach and the surroundings in general that welcome you at San Fruttuoso. Probably Liguria, for its closeness to home and the cleanliness of its sea, will always remain our favourite "terrain" for dusting off the diving suit, and from here we always hope to set off and end up exploring the most exotic and distant seas.