The Wedding Reception

After the service we walked back to the vans and were returned to Santa Margherita to the huge Villa Durazzo for the wedding reception. The locals of Camogli greatly enjoyed watching the parade of the wedding party and guests as they made their way through town.
The villa is a 17th century palazzo richly decorated with stutues and rare marbles, wonderful Venitian chandeliers , and as everywhere, lots of Trompe d'Oiel. We learned the reason for so much of the elaborate decoration was to avoid the taxes that would come with the real thing! At the villa, Spumanti (NOT Champaigne or Cava) flowed like the proverbial water. A forty foot table was covered with truely fantastci "antipasti" including various tartars, mini "pitzettas", tempuras, etc. Then the dinner and toasts -- the cake appeared at midnight preceding a late night dancing to live music.

As the battery in the camera had died, we made a quick detour to our hotel to get the charger in order to be able to take more pictures. As a result, we had to walk up the hilly driveway through the grounds to the reception. The driveway was lined with statues and beautiful trees.

The main reception room was on the second floor overlooking the grounds and the sea. Every room had a different but beautifully intricate glass chandelier. The ceilings were covered with paintings.

Looking out ove the piazza at the entrances. The design is made of white and black rocks.

Ivor stood patiently waiting for pictures with his father and his new father-in-law.