San Damian

Charmingplaces: Pamela, you spent your childhood in Liguria. When did you move there?

Pamela: It was in the seventies. My parents were young, explosive, dreamers, idealists, party people, restless, and decided – of course – that their place was in the south of Europe.

CP: The south of Europe has many exciting and beautiful places. Why did you choose Liguria?

Pamela: Liguria is simple and authentic, with the sea, a mild climate, open-minded and sociable people. We moved to a small village inland from Imperia, ironically called Isolalunga. Long Island. My grandmother is from New York.

CP: But this Long Island was probably in a much smaller cosmos. How were your worldly parents able to put down roots there?

Pamela: Our house, the renovated old bakery in the village, was a five-story house, full of stories and charm and always full of people. Friends came from all over the world.

Those who worked with Conrad Lawrence on ant research and lived for months in a tent on Monte Faudo, or those who worked in marine biology research. Guests who came from Japan and slept on the kitchen table because the mattress was too soft. From Australia with the latest technology and once even Miss Australia!

Some came from Persia and taught me a different and beautiful mathematics, some spent hours in meditation standing on their heads on the terrace. Others did pantomime theater, still others conducted orchestras.

In between came my mother’s old biology teacher from Massachusetts, JP the nun, who had made an interesting connection with the local curia and who took us around the European capitals, sleeping in monasteries.

CP: So the world came home to you. How did that shape you as a child?

Pamela: I was a quiet child, I observed and absorbed sensations, I understood many languages, I was curious but spoke little. I lived on this diversity. As an adolescent, I decided to deepen my great love for animals, which were always my best friends during my somewhat lonely childhood in winter in Liguria. I became a veterinarian to be able to help the animals, even the wild ones, on my own. But I couldn’t lock myself up in a studio or clinic for more than a few years. The need for movement and stimulation returned, which I could only satisfy by traveling.

CP: Where did your first travels take you?

Pamela: When school ended in June, I left with my mother to spend two months in the United States and Canada, fascinated by this world so different from Europe, by the huge spaces where everything was gigantic, from the milk bottle to the forests, lakes and deserts. There I experienced the wealth of the American bourgeoisie, the descent from a hero of the War of Independence (William Dawes), the abundance and the economic prosperity. Then, in August, I returned to Italy and went with my father to Hungary, where his brother lived (he had stayed in Hungary after the Russian invasion of 1956), to spend a whole month there, on the Danube, among vineyards and corn and sunflower fields. Here we got up at five in the morning to get the rationed bread, and my uncle carefully stored everything we brought from the West, starting with the plastic bags.

CP: Growing up among so many shifting cultures, your journeys into such contrasting worlds-how were you able to figure out which of all these was you?

Pamela: The vision of these distant worlds, which I was able to experience intensely without prejudice before the fall of the Berlin Wall, has greatly influenced my personality and life choices.

CP: Is there a good example of this?

Pamela: The adventure of our agriturismo! Together with my husband we have slowly and painstakingly built a wonderful place on the hills above the village of Isolalunga, where I used to play hide and seek as a child. The opportunity to combine my great love for nature with the feeling of welcome that I had breathed since childhood in the “open” house where I grew up. I could never call it “my” house, it was a house for “everyone”.

CP: And your need to travel doesn’t check in now?

Pamela: When my two daughters Viola and Emma came along, that need began to disappear in its old form. We created an open place for travelers who know how to uncover the mystery of the lesser-known places. The places that are not marked on the usual maps and are protected and guarded like a treasure. Today, as when I was a child, I still draw energy and passion from meeting people who come here from all over the world to appreciate the authentic simplicity and wonder of these places that have hardly changed in the last 50 years.

Covid-19 will change our lives forever. But nature keeps moving forward in the life cycle, and San Damian will continue being what it was created for: a safe haven of peace, far from the crowd.

We await you in our tranquil gardens and the discrete terraces, spaces especially designed to retire in quietness and solace. We are ready to welcome you in the peaceful atmosphere that our clients know very well: if you do not, we invite you to experience the unicity of this place sheltered from the media and the chaos of our times.

We know that we will meet again soon. In the meantime, we wish you and your loved ones peace and health in these challenging times.

It was not alone in the room: other pieces of wood had also been abandoned, and the confinement in the basement had made them mean and cruel. They mocked its pointed shape, and envied its hope. The seasons and the years passed by, with our piece of wood always dreaming about the world outside: “How wonderful it would be to feel again the birds sitting and singing on my branches!”, only for its wooden companions to cruelly mock it: “Now you can feel the cats!”.

In fact, there were many cats, and mice too. Our piece of olive tree being a dreamer, it never grew tired of enquiring about the world outside, and about what happened beyond the walls of the basement. Sometimes the cats, other times the mice, described the passing of seasons, the cheerful sound of the cicadas and the brightness of the moonlight. They described how the hill was changing, year after year: an orchard had appeared here, strange sculptures had been spotted there. Persimmons were growing, the fig trees were laden with fruits, the ramassin plums carried the smell of far away worlds and the ponds were filled with crystal-clear water.

They spoke of the vibrant colors in the rooms that humans had started to inhabit again, right on top of the basement. They reported that people never seen before were curiously wondering around, observing, drawing, writing.
The piece of olive tree asked many questions, dreamed and remembered, keeping alive the spark of life it had managed to preserve: “What a pleasure it would be to feel again my roots deeply plunged into the soil!”.
Then, one day…

From the terrace, the gaze glades over the whiteness of the trachelospermum jasminoides, the star jasmine vines that separate contiguous terraces. Ancient, evergreen cycads peep out of the brightness that inundates your balcony.

Both inside and outside, these details tell the story of our quest for harmony: inspiration, creation, openness to the wonders of world. Pamela and Roberto treasure the inspirations encountered in their travels and bring home objects, atmospheres and good vibes that speak of care, hospitality, authenticity, relations. They enrich the atmosphere of San Damian with the personal touch of the people who crossed our paths and worked with us to give shape to our dream.

It is not easy to explain. We leave it to you: lose yourself in the harmony we created.

Some of these pieces were created in the nearby hamlet of Dolceacqua, the village of artists and artisans cherished by Claude Monet, who celebrated and eternalised the bridge and local castle in his paintings.

Dolceacqua is also home to Edmondo, who is much more than our friend and provider of excellent, home-produced Rossese wine. Edmondo’s hands are behind the restoration of the furniture of our suites: charming, ancient walnut and chestnut wardrobes, tables and night stands.

An artisan sees to every step, from the ideation to creation of an object. Like artisans, Roberto and Pamela transform ideas into reality, shaping every day an hospitality made of small details and unique vibes.

“… it feels like a whisper” – In the kind words of Angela, who reviewed San Damian on booking.com.

Free from chemical pesticides, the fruits of the semi-wild plants of our garden are made into delicious low-sugar fuit spreads. In fruit spreads, the amount of fruit is higher than in jams or marmalades, and the level of sugar is lower. They are also free from preservatives, which means they arrive fresh on your breakfast table. Ripe fruits, low sugar, a rapid boil: a simple recipe to savour freshly-grown fruit, with no additives. Fruit spread is a gift for the present.

This is what take your time means for us: respect for the rhythms of nature, choosing only seasonal products and baking them daily to serve you freshly-made, tasty breakfast treats. This is the secret and the magic behind our fuit tarts and pies: an invitation to savour the perfection of the present.

These olive trees grow strong and robust, and can reach over 10-15 metres in height. Their cascading branches bear fruits of an intense purple colour: the renowned taggiasca olives. Although this type of olive is modest in size, the pulp is comparatively larger, making it a particularly aromatic and tasty table olive. It also produces an extremely palatable and renowned extra-virgin oil, which in San Damian is made entirely of taggiasca olives and never mixed with other cultivars. The olives are cold pressed and carefully preserved under the strict control of Roberto, who takes care of about 600 trees with love and attention.

The landscape in San Damian is still embellished with the taggiasca trees and the dry stone walls from the XIII century. It is as if time had stopped, inviting our guests to pause, suspended between the roughness of the hills and the lush of the oasis. Removed from the tourism of the coast, San Damian is a green, luxuriant scenery where to peacefully indulge in the contemplation of the flow of history. The traces of an ancient history adorn the gentle heart of this land, an unexpected gift on the dry, stony backdrop of inland Liguria.