{"id":4039,"date":"2006-08-15T21:06:05","date_gmt":"2006-08-16T04:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zariat.com\/home\/?p=4039"},"modified":"2012-10-25T23:02:58","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T06:02:58","slug":"chiavari-with-la-famiglia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zariat.com\/home\/2006\/08\/15\/chiavari-with-la-famiglia\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiavari with La Famiglia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friend from Milan offered to take me along to visit his family in the Italian Riviera village of Chiavari<\/a> to experience a ‘real’ Italian beach holiday. How could i refuse such a generous offer?<\/p>\n

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\"\"We stayed with my friend’s aunt, uncle, and young cousins, eating home-cooked meals and playing silly games.<\/p>\n

My friend’s adorable little cousin was a very charming host, and he convinced us to let him accompany us for most of our local excursions. He enjoyed wearing my sarong as a cape sometimes.<\/p>\n

A day was spent swimming together, the entire family and me, in the Mediterranean Sea. I climbed the rocks at the shore and splashed in the gentle waves, and at the end of the day i watched the boys tire themselves out in a pickup game of soccer (football).<\/p>\n

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While in town, i snapped surreptitious photos of classic European architecture elegantly framing the town square, along with crudely spray-painted declarations of love.<\/p>\n

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Chiavari, a town of only 28,000, is the sort of place i’d never have known to visit on my own, but which i am truly grateful i discovered with the help of a friend. It’s likely i would never have seen it, especially from this perspective, without being brought here.<\/p>\n

These are the sorts of experiences that make traveling without plans so rewarding.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t