The legendary bear and the farm holiday: A trip to Sant'Olcese

This weekend we decided to go and meet a saint who knew how to tame a bear. And to do so, we follow instinct, the one that suggests we shouldn't rush as we do during work periods, but take it easy, tune in to the rhythms of nature enjoying the beauty of the landscape. For this reason we choose to take the highway that through the Scrivia Valley leads to Genoa. A couple of hours of curves, but breathtaking ones: small hamlets made of brightly colored houses, unmistakably Ligurian even when we are still in the province of Alessandria, around Arquata Scrivia. The road, which runs along an ancient route, that centuries ago was traveled by Ligurian and Piedmontese merchants who met for business on the plain, passing through the Capanne di Marcarolo, is immersed in the dark green of the endless woods of the valley, offering the traveler an unforgettable spectacle.

Already in Roman times, in the 2nd century BC the consul Aulus Postumius had a paved road built here, the Via Postumia, of which today no trace remains. We thus reach Sant'Olcese, a municipality on the outskirts of Genoa, which develops in several hamlets in the Polcevera Valley, a few kilometers from Bolzaneto. And here at last we can "meet" our saint: the name of the town indeed comes from that of the Norman bishop Olcese, who, fleeing the barbarian invasions in his Gaul, in the 5th century settled here. In the church dedicated to him are preserved the mortal remains of the saint, while on the facade a fresco tells the legend of the miracle of the bear. The mischievous animal had long been bothering and terrorizing the population, and one day it really went too far: it ate an ox that was supposed to pull a cart.

To intervene, to resolve the matter, was not a hunter, however, but Sant'Olcese himself, who tamed the bear and yoked it to the cart in place of the ox the beast had killed. Our weekend too was populated by animals, but fortunately we didn't have to tame any bear, instead we had fun with the goats, cows and donkeys of the Fattoria di Marta, the farmhouse located in the Arvigo Superiore hamlet, where we spent this lovely weekend. The children of our friend, Sara and Matteo, went literally crazy for the donkeys and didn't want to stop cuddling them. "When children come to our educational farm, sometimes we discover that some of them, who have always lived in the city, don't even know that milk comes from cows," says the father of Tiziana, the owner, in amazement.

But children who spend even just a day here, taking part in the workshops during which they learn to make cheese, bread or jam, go home enriched with an authentic experience in contact with nature and the animals become friends to them. Sant'Olcese is also famous for its salami, which is prepared following a traditional Ligurian recipe: half pork and half beef, with diced lard, the salami is dried over a wood fire and then aged in the ancient cellars of the area. Our dinner at the Fattoria di Marta also begins with excellent appetizers of Genoese cuisine, including cold cuts produced on the farm, of prized pork. We also eat some herb frittatas and taste the fresh cheese of the farm, served with a green tomato jam. As a first course, we take ravioli filled with potatoes and seasoned with pesto, and oven-baked lasagna with fresh zucchini.

"It all began with a holiday we had taken nine years ago at a farmhouse in Tuscany," Mrs. Tiziana tells us, when we ask her about the history of the place. "They had opened a year earlier and were so enthusiastic that we got infected too. The farm was already there, we dedicated the following years to the work necessary to create a welcoming place for guests. We opened three years ago and decided to dedicate the farm to our daughter Marta, who is now six, while her little brother, Rodolfo, is two." We follow the exquisite first courses with tomaxelle, which are meat rolls, and Ligurian rabbit, accompanying the main courses with very fresh salads from the garden. We wash it all down with excellent white wine from Coronata, coming from the nearby vineyards of Morego.

We conclude the dinner with a fantastic pear and chocolate cake, and we're already thinking about when we'll come back here next time: we'll have to take a walk along the botanical trail of Ciaè and maybe we'll even get to attend one of the shows organized in the park of the nineteenth-century Villa Serra.

Francesca Bertha