A weekend around Los Angeles

I have been to Los Angeles once. All I recall from that trip is being stuck on the freeway and the chaos of Hollywood Boulevard. Let’s see, if this time L.A., leaves me with more profound memories.

I have just landed. It is late in the afternoon. We are supposed to meet a friend’s friend, a local, but he is running late from work and texts me a few suggestions for a drink. I follow his advice and I end up on the roof terrace of the Erwin Hotel in Venice - a front-beach neighbourhood in L.A. There, I enjoy good views of the beach at sunset. Venice appears nice.

After dinner we finally meet our friend who has had a terrible day at work. He invites us in his heated garden and we all enjoy a bottle of white wine.

The next morning we go for a walk on Ocean Front - the street that runs parallel to Venice beach. It is no more than a long stretch of T-shirt, piercing and tattoo shops and a bunch of eccentrics. The various vendors are pretty pushy and try to sell us their merchandise.

We leave and decide to spend the rest of the day in Malibu. We drive on the Pacific Highway (U.S. 1), past Santa Monica, and enjoy the beautiful vistas on both sides.

We stop for a short walk in Zuma beach and then head to El Matador beach. After a few flights of stairs, we get down to El Matador. It is beautiful: a long stretch of ragged coastline dotted with rocks. It really reminds me of Santa Barbara. No wonder the two are only 60 miles apart.

Perhaps the most striking feature of Malibu is not its beaches, but its luxurious Mediterranean style villas scattered around its twenty-one miles of coastline.

If it wasn’t for the strong wind and the waves, you would probably think you are somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. Maybe there you do not get such a long strip of luxury. But we are not far from LA and probably most of the people living there are working in the entertainment industry. Although this is America, Malibu really resembles the Old World.

After a short stroll on 3rd Promenade in Santa Monica - nothing captures my interest there - we return to Venice for dinner.

We go to a French-Californian restaurant, Joe’s. The food is excellent: fresh, quality ingredients well combined together. We even share a dessert! The bill comes high but our palates are satisfied.

Our trip is almost over. The following day we are back to San Francisco. Before leaving, though, we have to visit Venice canals. These are man-made canals built at the beginning of the 20th century by Abbot Kinney- an American businessman and developer - as part of his plans to recreate Venezia in Southern California.

Most of the canals have been filled to create roads but there are still a few left. Far from the real Venice canals, not least in terms of their architecture, we are nevertheless impressed by the nice houses. Some are in a Venetian style, other in Mediterranean, Victorian and modern architecture. They all fit nicely together.

We still have some time so we go for a walk on Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Cute shops line both sides of the street, each selling pricey but unique items. Apparently chain stores are not allowed there.

Unlike the canals, Abbot Kinney Boulevard seems a miscellaneous of different architecture styles without a unifying plan.

We continue walking. Nothing else stands out. I am sorry Abbot, perhaps this is not what you had in mind, but Venice of America is really far off from Venezia!

As we drive from Venice to the airport, L.A. feels like a bunch of isolated neighbourhoods connected by few highways. I think about Malibu and El Matador.

Even this time, Los Angeles fails to imprint more enduring memories. Goodbye L.A., I don’t know if I will be back.