Framura, one of the Borghi Più Belli d’Italia, è a pearl set in the Riviera di Levante of Liguria, between Portofino and the Cinque Terre. The characteristic medieval villages that make up this municipality are perched on a hill overlooking the sea. Like many Ligurian villages, Framura was once a village of merchants and fishermen, and still today small fishing boats leave from its small port to lower their nets, as if to celebrate a ritual that has been going on for centuries.
The crystal clear sea of Framura, awarded in 2017 with the fifth consecutive Blue Flag, is now a tourist attraction, but once it was the main resource for the inhabitants of this vertical territory, soì rocky and difficult to cultivate. Then there were those who sailed on merchant ships and remained on board for months or years; their families stayed at home waiting for them, often in vain, praying to the Madonna del Mare for their loved ones to return.
Today Framura lives of tourism but the devotion to the Madonna del Mare è remained in the local folklore and is dedicated one of the main festivals of the summer calendar. Many tourists reach the picturesque harbor every year for the fireworks display, which takes place on the evening of the first Sunday in August, but for the inhabitants of the town the ritual begins in the morning. With their gozzi they shuttle from the pier to Ciamia, the largest rock in Liguria, which stands out imposingly on the sea in front of the port. Fireworks are painstakingly placed on it and, as evening falls, hundreds of candles are laid like a mantle on its back of volcanic rock.
Each rock in Framura has its own name and a story to tell, but Ciamia is the most important one: it has always protected the port and the boats moored there, stemming the violent lashings of the sea. Legend has it that Framura was born from a dialogue with the nearby Agûa rock. A local rhyme recites in fact:
“Ciamia a ciamava, l’ Agûa rispondeiva e Framua a nasceiva”
(Ciamia called, l’ Agûa answered and Framura was born).
The Ligurians, you know, are of few words, and may seem as hard as their rocks, but in their own way they know how to be romantic.
The preparations are not over yet; even the sea gradually lights up with the faint light of thousands of candles, which are patiently placed in the water by fishermen. When the last ray of sunlight hides behind the horizon, the view is simply spectacular. Anyone who has seen the sea at Framura at least once and has seen it dressed up for a party knows that it will never be forgotten.
Framura awaits you Sunday, August 6 for the Feast of Our Lady of the Sea.
