I’d like to tell you about myself, and I’d like to try and do that by telling you about my travels. In one way or another they all have nature and my grandfather in common. Why my grandfather? Well, you could write a book about my grandfather. Tito Vivaldi was born and raised in Riomaggiore. His family was among the first to take up residence in the marina — they were a dark-skinned and dark-eyed people, with some good terraced vineyards in the hills and wine in their cantinas. The Vivaldi houses still stand above the old wine cellars’ stone arches on the upper part of the slipway in front of Dau Cila Restaurant. Our neighbor Ugolino’s last name was Vivaldi too and the two of them, in addition to their last names, had their adjacent balconies in common, as well as a rowboat my grandfather would bring me and my sister to the bay’s rocky outcrops with. We would simulate a motor by kicking our feet in the water and, rowing, he would tell us about seaquakes brought on by touching sea anemones, “crab showers” against the rocks under the station, and of an elusive shark in the grotto by the beach. Many years later I did graduate in Nature Conservation so as not to betray the childlike

Ancien house tower overlooking the ocean few steps far from the sea, spacious terrace perfect to to enjoy, in total pricacy, a dinner in the moonlight with the background of the sea waves or during the day sunbathing without moving from home or simply for those who want to live in a postcard for a few days once in a lifetime

The main road was the result of a covered canal beneath which runs the “Rivus Major” stream, from which the village takes its name. The housing is of the typical tower-house variety, developed on three or four floors with no more than two rooms per floor, side by side to each other in parallel rows. The houses have typically two entrances, one at the front and one at the back, usually higher. The buildings were constructed this way not only because of the steep hills, but also for safety reasons, so that the inhabitants could escape in case of Saracen attacks. The marina is surrounded by the typical medieval houses, founded on the stone arches of the old wine warehouses, climbing up the slope to the Castle making the marina of the village a unique spectacle