along the seaside path named in her honor. Waves crash against
rugged cliffs, as you look out to stunning views of Portofino
and the Cinque Terre. Flanking the other side of the Anita
Garibaldi Path are three villa lawns that comprise the Parchi
di Nervi. They are shaded by palm trees and pines, filled with
exotic plants and Mediterranean flowers.
The Genoa elite used to come here to escape the summer
heat, but now it’s the place to blend with the regular folk.
Couples stroll arm in arm, kids run for the trees with bags of
nuts to feed the squirrels.
The dramatic seascape and exotic nature
of the gardens express the essence of Anita
Garibaldi. She was Italy’s wonder-woman who
fought alongside her husband Giuseppe in
the nineteenth-century revolution that culminated
in giving them the titles “Father and
Mother of Modern Italy.”
I first encountered Anita on Rome’s
Janiculum Hill, where there’s a statue of her brandishing a
pistol as she rides a wild mustang, with a baby tucked under her
other arm.
Anita’s life story is the stuff of a blockbuster movie. She was
born in Brazil and learned horsemanship from her father, who
died when she was twelve. At fourteen, she was married off to a
local older man, Signor Aguiar, aka “the drunken shoemaker.”
While her husband was off at war, who should appear, but
Giuseppe Garibaldi, sailing in from Italy with a passion to
help Brazil fight for its independence. The moment Giuseppe
set eyes on dark-haired Anita with her extraordinary almondshaped
eyes, he walked straight up to her and said, “Maiden,
thou shalt be mine.”
Even though she was still married, Anita
took off to fight by Giuseppe’s side in Brazil and Uruguay, firing
canons, teaching him gaucho guerilla warfare, and giving birth
to their first son in the midst of all that. They married two years
later, after Anita’s first husband died.
In 1848, with four children in tow (between the ages of eight
and two!), Anita and Giuseppe left South America to go to Italy
and join the fight for unification. A year later, Anita died
in Giuseppe’s arms after a battle near Ravenna. She was
twenty-eight and pregnant with their fifth child.
Giuseppe kept Anita’s memory alive. When he rode
in victory to the crowning of Emmanuel II as the first
king of a united Italy, he wore a Brazilian poncho.
And around his neck, Anita’s striped scarf.
The Anita Garibaldi Passeggiata was created by
Marchese Gaetano Gropallo in 1862, just two years after
Italy’s unification. It used to be a rustic path used by fisherman,
but the Marchese fancied it up with lampposts and paving,
so now it’s an extended terrace to not only Gropallo’s gardens,
but also his neighbors, the Grimaldis and the Serras.
The Villa Grimaldi rose garden is the most famous of the three and
especially beautiful in spring. All are now owned by the state,
house museums, and the grounds are used for outdoor ballets
and theater in July.
Parco Villa Grimaldi, Via Capolungo 9, 8–dusk.
Golden Day: Take a train (fifteen minutes) from Genoa to
Nervi, stroll the path and gardens."
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