Walk On By

I do, at times, wonder if we don't rather over-play some of the attributes of the local landscape. Myself, I find myself caught between wearing the blog hat of telling it pretty how much how it is as opposed to how it might like to be and the other hat of the websites and guides of portraying the area in as good or as reasonable a light as possible. But what I can't do, or try and avoid at any rate, is to bow to "brochure talk". I think the punter is too canny for this in any event. All those superlatives, all that hyperbole, all that gloss and puffery. Beauty should largely be in the eye of the beholder, not necessarily impressed upon him or her by a writer, marketer or proselytizer with a list of intensifiers to tick off. We need a thesaurus of objectivity, not of the mindless copywriter expressing him or herself in no more than casual "beautifuls" or "lovelys".

Take Puerto Pollensa's pinewalk. It is attractive, and it can attract some seriously unattractive (to the renter) rental prices, though some may find them suitably attractive in order to have THAT view and some branches of pine trees dangling in front of the balcony. In part it is what was also in that conversation I referred to the other day; that view in terms of opinion from someone of many years more Puerto Pollensa experience than myself. To sum up; is it (the pinewalk) really that deserving of the glowing prose with which it is usually defined? Maybe it's familiarity breeding contempt, or familiarity breeding, well, familiarity, but I thought perhaps no it isn't. How many photos have I got of the pinewalk? How many photos have others got of the pinewalk? Those familiar shots of the curve of the bay and a pine tree hanging artistically in the forward focus. For all this, though, that shot is iconic, and despite the apparent decline of Puerto Pollensa (as some see it), it retains the power to mesmerise, even if, in truth, in terms of physical splendours on the island, the pinewalk is more C-list than the A-list of, for example, Sa Calobra or Formentor. But that is to declare an unfairness of scale and context, as the pinewalk is symbolic of an in-resort agreeableness as opposed to a monolithic land- or seascape; an agreeableness that is, arguably, unrivalled by its resort competitors. To say it how it is, does also imply a degree of subjectivity, and one is wary of being perversely or deliberately iconoclastic, simply for the sake of it.

This all said, the pinewalk does lend itself to being an A-list location for a restaurant. The relative lack of bustle, the proximity of the sea and THAT view combine to imbue the restaurants there with an advantage that compensates for their comparative smallness. Little Italy is one, Los Pescadores another. The former, the partnership between the ebullient flair of Caryl and his floor slides, the more serious Michele and the suggested Florentine artiness of Rafa, is a place of fine and inexpensive pizzas (and other Italian cooking). I like it very much. The food is always good and the non-fake italiano ambience is rarely less than entertaining. Just a bit along is Los Pescadores, somewhere that needed a makeover and by God it's had one. If the pinewalk can, in brochure terms, be described as charming, here is somewhere that charms the pants off me, well Angie and her sister do (and no, not literally, behave yourselves). One for the list I feel, and I hope I'm not over-playing it.

Little Italy is at Paseo Voramar 57; Los Pescadores at number 45. Los Pescadores specialises in fish and seafood, tapas, lamb and paella, and there is also a lunch snack menu. Both are open every day in the season.


QUIZ: Yesterday - Terry Hall. Today's title - by whom, both singer and writers?

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