Luca: Instagrammable Liguria to discover

Luca

Luca, Liguria and perfect places to take beautiful photos, Instagram posts or Pixar-style selfies? Here is our "guide" to the places of the film so as not to miss any magical corner during (hopefully) your summer holidays! Of the many spells created by Luca, the new animated Pixar film available since June 18 on Disney +, the most amazing is having been able to portray a piece of our Italy with incredible delicacy and poetry. The Liguria with a vague 50s flavor that Enrico Casarosa photographed, in fact, is a silent but omnipresent character in Luca, a companion of adventures that reveals itself in its typical colors, in its unmistakable alleys and in visually portraying a centuries-old urban tradition made of land stolen from the mountains and the sea. What we usually take for granted, that is the beauty of our places, is instead enhanced by Casarosa and the team you worked with to make this exciting animated film, leaving us with the feeling that it is an ideal vision, far from reality. . Instead, Luca's Liguria really exists, it is made up of places that inspired the film's most loved scenes, fairytale locations perfect for a selfie.

As a Ligurian, I could probably be a little biased, but it is undeniable that Liguria is full of enchanting places, like much of our peninsula. Casarosa, as a good Genoese, could only portray his homeland in his film, an animated amarcord enriched by this poem of marine creatures and village competitions, but in giving life to his film he followed a tradition of Disney animation: the search of the truth.

Luca: Liguria intragrammable to discover

But what are the best places for posts to share on social networks, Instagram, Facebook or others? Where to take the "perfect selfie" Luca-themed? To the Ligurians, seeing Luca, the landscape glimpses created can recall more than one location, a feeling due to the artistic teams' habit of traveling a lot to learn about what they have to reproduce, creating an exciting synthesis of different elements. In the case of Liguria, Portorosso, the village where Luca takes place, becomes the very embodiment of a typical seaside village of the Ligurian coast, so well represented that it brings to mind dozens of instagrammable places, to use a trendy term lately, typically Ligurian .

Portorosso, between fiction and reality Alberto's tower Culinary traditions and more Unmissable views

Portorosso, between fiction and reality

Portorosso, sorry to disappoint you, does not exist. Or rather, it is not a geographically real name, but it could be the crasis between Portovenere and Monterosso. Those who know the Cinque Terre, one of the most enchanting places on the Ligurian coast of Levante (from Genoa to La Spezia, to be understood), are well aware of the beauty of these small fishing villages that have maintained their traditional air even in the modern era. .

Seeing the small square of Portorosso, there are two locations that immediately come to mind: Vernazza and Boccadasse.

Vernazza is one of the typical villages of the Cinque Terre, and its small square near the small port of fishermen, although devoid of a fountain with a defeated sea monster, is very reminiscent of the center of Portorosso. The houses built in this strip of land stolen from waves and hills have the typical pastel colors seen in Luca, who also portrays the typical appearance of casatorri, that is a building developed mainly in height, a need in a land where little space had to be used to the fullest. For the home of the Marcovaldo family, it seems that the inspiration came from the tower houses of Riva Maggiore, another characteristic village of the Cinque Terre, near Vernazza.

The structure of the square in Portorosso also recalls Boccadasse, a fishing village which over time has been incorporated into the urban area of ​​Genoa. The historical legacy of this cluster of houses has remained unchanged over time, the gozzi, the small typical boats seen in Luca, are still being put back in the lanes of Boccadasse close to the sea.

One of the symbols also comes from Boccadasse di Luca, the cat Machiavelli, even if Casarosa affirmed that his first inspiration was Don Vito Corleone of Il Padrino. There is now little doubt that the Marcovaldo house feline is a tribute to Seppia, a cat with a far from friendly gaze (typically Ligurian, with an always ready grunt) who has become a fixed presence, and in any case loved, of the Boccadasse walls. Passing by Sepia without taking a selfie is now unthinkable, considering that the cat also has its own Instagram profile, where it makes fun of its perennially annoyed face.

Alberto's tower

In Luca, Alberto has built his home inside an old ruined tower, on an island just off the Portorosso pier. Looking for the real version, remaining in Vernazza we can rely on the Torre dei Doria, a structure that is part of the Vernazza Castle, which dominates the hill overlooking the marina.

The Ligurian coast, especially in the west, often has similar structures, renamed Torrioni, squat towers that recall the fortifications built by the Republic of Genoa, especially in the West, to defend themselves from the raids of Saracen pirates. One of the most famous is the Saracen Tower of Alassio, which placed in one of the most open points of the Alassian coast is an ideal spot for a nice selfie to post on Instagram.

Culinary traditions and more

In Luca, one of the most recognizable elements of Ligurian culture are the trenette al perso by the Marcovaldo house, served as tradition requires: with potatoes and green beans. If this prominent element is an integral part of the story, it is impossible not to draw attention to the sign outside the San Giorgio dairy, which mentions the inevitable focaccia (Ligurian breakfast: focaccia in cappuccino, take note), the farinata and the cheese focaccia, which alludes to the Recco focaccia, a thin sheet of pasta in which prescinseua is contained, a soft cheese typical of the area.

Land of the sea and, inevitably, of legends linked to the abyss. Casarosa wanted to pay homage to this tradition by recalling a typical legend of Tellaro, according to which an octopus, to warn the population of the arrival of a Saracen pirate ship, climbed the bell tower of San Giorgio, ringing the bells to raise the alarm. A note of folklore that Casarosa has placed on Mrs. Marseillaise's door, where two metal polyps stand out, which we can see during a delivery by Giulia Marcovaldo.

Speaking of Giulia, her surname could be a homage to Italo Calvino, Ligurian writer, and his novel Marcovaldo or seasons in the city.

Unmissable views

During the first moments together, Luca and Alberto embark on incredible adventures, discovering places that seem too good to be real. Yet, the Ligurian Riviera can surprise you with its astonishing beauty, easily passing from impervious woods to marvelous sea caves. It is almost impossible not to find such views, both at sea level, such as the Blue Trail of Vernazza, which also leads to the Devil's Cave, a place to go for an instagrammable shot that pays homage to one of Luca's most picturesque scenes.

In the final scenes, when Luca leaves for Genoa, looking at the sea you can see an islet. It is not difficult to witness similar scenarios in Liguria, as in Bergeggi, where from the road close to the waves it is possible to take a selfie with the islet of Bergeggi behind you.



In the titles of queue, in one scene Luca and Giulia are seen enjoying a breathtaking view of Genoa, where you can see the roofs and the symbols of the Superba. If you want to take a selfie for your Instagram profile that pays homage to this exciting scene, you just have to go to Spianata Castelletto, reachable by a special lift.