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The hills to the south-west of Apricale are dominated by Perinaldo, an ancient village which stands atop the ridge giving panoramic views over the spontaneous flora (painting the slopes in a never-ending variety of colours as the seasons come and go) and woods filled with chestnut and pine trees. The far-off outlines of mounts Bignone, Ceppo, Toraggio, Pietravecchia and Grai can be made out on one side; on the other side the eye is drawn towards the sea. Perinaldo looks upwards beyond the horizon towards the blue of the heavens; here the sky is untainted by air and light pollution with some of the clearest views in the area. The mountainous terrain means that winds reach the very highest points, preventing clouds and unsettled weather from staying around too long.
These conditions were first appreciated over two hundred years ago by an illustrious son of the village, Gian Domenico Cassini, the first of four generations of astronomers. His reputation stretched as far as the court of the Sun King (Louis XIV) and his discoveries form the basis of modern astronomy: he was the first to identify four of the seventeen moons of Saturn and divide up the rings of the planet (the method he used still bears his name). Cassini also calculated the distance between the Earth and our nearest planets. He measured the time taken for Mars, Venus and Jupiter to complete one whole rotation and described the dust belt encircling the latter. The famous astronomer also lent his name to the modern-day Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titania. He lives on in the village of his birth through the observatory housed in the former Franciscan convent of San Sebastiano on the eastern outskirts (guided "tours" of the night sky are held here on a regular basis).
Adjacent to the observatory are the town hall and church of Sant'Antonio da Padova with its triangular-based sui generis bell tower. Visitors to Apricale should stop off at the Castello Maraldi (said to be the birthplace of Cassini and home to Napoleon and General Massena during the Italian campaign) and the parish church of San Nicolò (1489, the date carved in the lintel above the right-hand door, the porta degli uomini). Here one can admire the painting delle anime (of the souls), attributed to the school of Guercino, in the right aisle. On the facade of the priest's lodgings, formerly the Summer residence and hunting lodge of the Marchesi Doria di Dolceacqua, is an old sundial, built to the specifications of Cassini's grandson, the astronomer Gian Domenico Maraldi.
Lastly, outside the walls of Perinaldo the country church of Nostra Signora della Visitazione is a reminder of the "Poggio dei rei" and the far-off atonement rites of the penitents who gathered there on pilgrimage. |
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