Genova, Italy by Mel

Buongiorno,
We are in Italia! In Genova to be more precise. I have seen it written Genoa and Genova, and I am still not quite sure which is the correct spelling! I think Genova is the Italian name and Genoa the English name. I will be using the Italian name.
Genova is a city in the north of Italia on the Mediterranean Sea. The city is one of the oldest continually inhabited city in the world as it started in the 5th century BC. It became the republic of Genova in 1099. During the 11th century, Genova took part of the first crusade and developed its influence. From the 12th to the 15th century, Genova became one of the largest port in Europe and took the lead in developing trade and was considered as one of the wealthiest city in the world. From the 16th century on, the city slowly started to decline due to too many wars, a plague in 1656-1657 which killed half of the population and revolution in their colonies. In 1797, Napoleon creates another republic in the area and Genova was part of it. Following this, different region and country hold Genova in their kingdom for a little bit but it became part of the country Italy in 1861 et regain a bit of its former glory. This was a very succent history class about Genova!
Today Genova is a city with 1.5 million inhabitants (including the wider metropolitan area).
We arrived here on Tuesday the 15th of July after taking 2 trains from Nice to Ventimiglia (just after the Italian border) and from Ventimiglia to Genova. We didn’t have number seat and both train were packed, so we stood up for most of the time with our bags. We managed to sit down for a bit, which was nice as we were carrying our big bags!
Anyway, we arrived at the main train station in Genova and walked to our place. This is a cozy little apartment, nice and comfortable.
The host of the appartement gave us plenty of details of what to see around. He was insistent on “when you are leaving the building, go left!”. He said it a few times. We knew why, as this is the way we arrived and we saw a few streets with what appeared to be a fair few people either intoxicated or under the influence of something.
After settling a bit, we decided to go walk into our first Italian city. We went left when leaving the building, and walked around small streets. Our host told us that those tiny streets were made as a maze in case of pirates coming into the city: they would get lost and would be easier to catch. I’m not sure if this is historically accurate, but I like the idea. It is very easy to get lost!
We visited the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo which was built at the end of the 11th century and is pretty impressive. The outside is very recognisable with its black and white bands (we saw that pattern in other places around the city). The inside is very decorated with sculptures, paintings and carvings, each more beautiful than the last. We walk around the fountain on Piazza De Ferrari (not named after the cars but after a politician and banker who in 1875 donated a considerable sum for the enlargement of the port). The fountain is big and when we got there, a lots of kids where playing in the water (it is hot here!). We learnt that this is the place where the city celebrates big sporting events and other important dates. We also walked near the port which is one of the biggest port of Italy and I believe it! I think we saw 7 massive cruise ships there and there were still space for more! After a while, we came back to the little place around the corner of our street to have some food. We tasted our first pesto pasta of the trip and it was delicious. A local bottle of wine between me and Kev and a movie night back at the apartment, and it was time for bed.
The following day, we did a very touristic stuff: we took a hop on hop off red bus. The kids have been asking for it for a while, so we did. That’s it: we did one, we don’t need to do it again! It goes too fast, no time to see things properly or take pictures. I liked the information given during the tour but again, it goes too fast and by the time, we hear what they are talking about, the building is gone! As we already walked in the old town yesterday, we had an idea of the place. We got off near a church we hadn’t see the day before: the Santa Maria Assunta church built as a private church originally, for a very rich family, who paid for it with the interest of the money they had in the bank… Obviously the church is beautiful with incredible statues in it. I really think that churches in Italy are at another level.
For lunch we found a little place which makes pizza, but not the round one we are use to: they are square and pretty simple with the ingredients on it, but absolutely delicious. We did some more walking around and find an inside market with a lot of delicious looking things! We hoped back on the bus to see the lighthouse. When we get out of the bus, they tell us the lighthouse is closed. Ok, we’ll just walk around then. It took is a little bit to find it from where the bus dropped us, but then we found the “walkway’ to it which is pretty poorly maintained and arrived near the lighthouse that we can’t even get close to. The area is pretty run down, so we walk back to the bus station and we are done for the day!
My impression of the city is a bit mixed. There are some beautiful buildings and history, but there seems to have a lot of poverty as well. There is a lot of homelessness and a fair bit a rubbish (not India level, but more than expected for a European country). It is sad to see that even in richer countries, there is still a lot of poverty and that we have found a way to help people in need.
For the evening: a bit of blogging, a bit of gaming (we are all addicted to a game we started a few weeks ago. We play together so it is nice), movie night and bed.
On the 17th, we took the bus again (we bought tickets for 2 days) and get on the coastal line. On the map they gave us, it says “fishing village”…. We went there and I’m not sure what I was expecting but not what we found. This is a tourist village: all we saw was buildings on one side of the road and restaurants or club where you have to pay to get on the beach. And that for a few kilometres it seems. The kids wanted to play on the beach, but struggle finding an free access to the beach: after a while we found one small beach accessible to all. The kids played with the rocks, as there are no sand here, but rocks on the beach. They built a small tower with rocks. One thing with noticed was the sound of the rocks after each waves: the waves would push the rocks forwards and when the waves went back, the rocks would fall back making a crumbling sound. I liked it!
After a while, I started getting too hot, as there was no shade, so we kept going on the road following the beach. We walked back to the next bus stop and hoped back on. It was a bit disappointed. The fishing village might have been there at some point, but is definitely not anymore!
We found a restaurant for lunch: yummy food but a bit pricey (everything seem to be pricey here). We then try to find a cable car that is supposed take you to a viewpoint so you can see the whole city. We looked for it for a while and when we finally found it, it was closed!!! Fine! We won’t go to the viewpoint then!!! Not the best day in term of visit, but we were together, we walked around a foreign city, so all in all, we are not complaining (much!)
We got back to our place to do some schoolwork (it was a bit neglected in France, so we need to catch up a bit), movie and bed!
Friday the 18th was much better than the previous day. We visited the Genova aquarium. The tickets were pretty expensive, but definitely worth the visit. It is a BIG aquarium! It is actually the biggest in Italy. The way it is constructed is pretty smart and despite having a lot of people visiting it, it was still relatively easy to see the fish (we had to wait a few times but we are in no hurry!) They have seahorses, penguins, manatees, sharks, turtles… a plenty more. The interesting thing was that you could see the tanks from different viewpoint as the aquarium as different level which connect with each other. It is smartly done. We stayed in there a bit over 3 hours. There are a lot to see. The other good thing about this aquarium is that they do some conservative work, trying to breed and release species which are dangerously endangered. It is sad that this is needed, but if it needs to be done, I am glad some place seems to be doing it well. As always, you have to leave the aquarium through the gift shop and Emma bought herself another plush toy: a seal that was named snowy. Yeah! Another things they have to keep in their bag! The kids have several small plus toys now: We started the trip with Otary, Tian and Sniffy, then at Easter we got Poppy, then on Andrew’s birthday we got Fluff Baby, then Liony when we got on one of the plane and now we have Snowy! I think we are reaching our limit!
We did a quick pizza stop for lunch and then off to the next place which was right next to the aquarium.
It is called the city of children (or something like that): this is an interactive museum about our 5 senses. One room per sense and a couple of extra rooms to play in. One of the room was about sound and there was a screaming box: you had to get in a room and scream and it would tell you how loud you screamed. Andrew did 118 decibel, I did 117 decibel. It was fun screaming as loud as you could but it hurt my voice!!! Kev tried too and his voice was rough for the rest of the day! It was a nice place. We have seen a lot of this kind of places and it was a good one. The kids played more than they learnt things I think, but I’m sure some information sticked a bit!!! It was fun though!
We tried our first Italian ice cream and it was delicious! So creamy that 2 scoops were a bit much!!! After that, back to our place for some more blogging.
We went back to that little restaurant/bar place at the corner of the street we are in for a couple of drinks. I tried the Aperol Spritz, which is a traditional cocktail in Italy (so I had to try it!): made of Aperol (an orangy liquor), some sparkling cheap wine, sparkling water and a slice of orange. It was refreshing, not as sweet as I thought it was going to be. It was nice but not my favourite.
Back to our place for our pasta dinner (lovingly cooked by Kev: I'm so grateful for Kev's willingness to cook everyday!) and movie night.
Saturday the 19th of July, we are moving again. Packing bags again and we are going to take a couple of trains to go to Firenze (Florence).
I’ll see you there!
MelRead more