This is the opening blog for Villa Benara!
What? where? I hear you ask. I suppose a little introduction might help.
How did it all start?
The summer of 1967 saw me celebrate my 4th birthday and my first trip to Italy with my parents and brothers to stay in my grandparents 'appartamento' at Residenza Calandre Mare in Ventimiglia.
I am farthest right in the picture!
I wasn't aware of it until recently, but my grandparents were in Italy to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary and had given up the flat for us to use and were staying instead at an hotel (the curiously named Albergo Milano) in Perinaldo.
Just yesterday my father showed me the picture below of the family taken at the hotel in Perinaldo when we went to visit my grandparents. You can probably guess that I'm the grumpy one on the far right!
Almost every year from then until I was 18, my family would spend a week or two in 'Venti' and would travel to surrounding areas, particularly Menton just across the border into France and the mediaeval hill top villages behind Venti; Apricale, Dolceacqua and Perinaldo.
I suppose this part of the world, which at that time was a two day drive from Kent, became a second home for me and my familiarity with what was good and not so good was reinforced year after year.
I loved the heat, the thunderstorms, the food (pasta, mortadella, torta verde, peach juice and ice cream in particular), the beach, the smells... oh! and of course the cars!
It wasn't all good! Worst of all were the smells! Walking through Ventimiglia alta was not the most pleasant experience. At night it was positively dangerous as was known to harbour local criminals - but worse, much worse was the smell - in the late 1960's and early 70's, older parts of Italy like Ventimiglia alta were ill-equipped when it came to sanitation! Hold your breathe....
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