Santa Margherita

“Santa Margherita is an attractive small town linked with the harbour by a road on the very edge of the sea and a long colonnade, under the protection of which the fish market is conducted with voluble gossip. Scampi, triglia, prawns and all other ingredients of frito misto lie on black slate tables. The peasant women have their own personal scales, lifting them into the air as they measure the weight intently before telling the purchaser the price. Above the colonnade grow bougainvillaea, geraniums and red-hot pokers. A monument to six partisans and eighteen hostages shot by the Germans [during World War II] has a place of honour on the waterfront, near the monument to World War I. This represents a soldier whose steel helmet has fallen off. The little harbour is stuffed with sailing boats, row boats and small yachts.