Summer In Genoa

Call it a case of unfinished business; I’ve booked passage to Genoa, Italy to continue to explore my family roots in the Liguria and Piedmont regions of the motherland. Son Jory, who has been studying Italian as part of his undergraduate curriculum at the University of Oregon, will join me on this “vacanza meravigliosa.”

Visiting Italy in 2010, I was but a novice in the ways of European travel. This time, I will be much more efficient. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great experience the first time around and saw many sights in northern Italy, including Genoa (pictured above and below), Cinque Terre, Portovenere, Milan, Alessandria and Turin.

This time, however, I will broaden the agenda to include the little town of Chialamberto in the Italian Alps, where my grandfather, Carl Guiseppe Cargni, would guide caravans through the mountains. Another goal is to visit Nice and Marseilles in the nearby French Riviera, as well as the tiny principality of Monte Carlo.

And so, just as Napoleon plotted his escape from Elba -- the Italian island off the coast of Tuscany where the former Emporer of France had been exiled at the end of his reign -- we’ll be planning the itinerary for our summer holiday in Italy between now and next August. Who knows? Maybe we’ll visit Elba.