Italian Riviera Here We Come

Day 8

GOOD MORNING ITALY 🇮🇹

Welcome welcome welcome to Como in Italy 🇮🇹, woke up a bit late this morning but that’s okay we don’t have to leave until 9:00am this morning. At least we have a bit of daylight this morning although it is still overcast. I am sure we will have a nice sunny drive to Genoa where we are staying tonight before catching our ship tomorrow. Another great breakfast 🍳 this morning and now we are packed up ready for the next leg of our trip in the Mediterranean. Talk later, bye for now.

Set off on a bright sunny ☀️ day at 9:00am. We only have to drive about 200 km today and it should only take about 3 hrs. The drive was beautiful we were heading through the alps and passes following a river most of the way to the coast. We passed through small villages, saw many old bridges and forts on the high hills. The scenery was fantastic, we stopped at a service centre on the way and this was a bit hectic with a lot of people and only a few people to serve. Anyway had a coffee etc. and off we went again arriving in Genoa about lunch time.

Genoa (Genova) is a port city and the capital of northwest Italy's Liguria region. It's known for its central role in maritime trade over many centuries. In the old town stands the Romanesque Cathedral of San Lorenzo, with its black-and-white-striped facade and frescoed interior. Narrow lanes open onto monumental squares like Piazza de Ferrari, site of an iconic bronze fountain and Teatro Carlo Felice opera house.

From here we were guided to the cathedral and the town square, very interesting, before being left on our own to explore.

Piazza De Ferrari is the main square of Genoa. Situated in the heart of the city between the historical and the modern center, Piazza De Ferrari is renowned for its fountain, which was restored in recent years along with a major restyling of the square.
View of the east side of Piazza De Ferrari, towards Via XX Settembre and Via Dante
Today next to Piazza De Ferrari are numerous office buildings, headquarters of banks, insurances and other private companies, making of this district the financial and business centre of Genoa, so that the Genoese popularly refer to it as the "City" of Genoa. At the end of the 19th century Genoa was the main financial centre of Italy along with Milan, and Piazza De Ferrari was the place where many institutions were established, like the stock exchange, the Credito Italiano,[1] the branch offices of the Bank of Italy, founded in 1893.

We went and had a look at some old gates and so called Cristopher Columbus’s house.

The so-called Columbus' House is located not far from the gate of Porta Soprana, just outside the medieval walls. It is probably an 18th century reconstruction of the original medieval building, where the discoverer of the Americas spent his youth. The house was likely destroyed during the bombing by the French fleet of King Louis XIV that hit Genoa in 1684. The building has two floors: the ground floor was used as a workshop by his father, Domenico Columbus, who dealt in wool weaving and trade; the home of the family was upstairs. According to written sources, the navigator must have lived here between 1455 and 1470.

In addition to the damage caused by the French bombing of 1684, the building was also affected by the intense building development in the area of Ponticello, where it was located. The district took its name from the small street called Vico Dritto Ponticello, which no longer exists, located just outside the ancient Porta Soprana on St. Andrew Cloister, where the house stands. According to Genoese historian Marcello Staglieno, who is credited with the discovery of the home of Columbus, at the time of the navigator the building had two or perhaps three floors and was restored on the basis of the original remains. The archival documents found by Genoese historians suggest that Domenico Columbus, father of the great navigator, moved with his family in the Vico Dritto Ponticello in 1455 when Columbus was only four years old. The ground floor of the house was used as a workshop; the front door was on the left of the façade. A wooden truss ceiling separates it from the upper floor, probably as in the original structure.
In 1887, the house was purchased by the Municipality of Genoa, as concrete evidence of the provenance of the Genoese navigator. The building was thus included in the restoration program of the Porta Soprana, which allowed for its survival despite the transformations of the centre between the late 19th century and the 1930s. A plaque on the main front of the house reads: “No home is more worthy of consideration that this one, where Christopher Columbus spent between paternal walls his early youth”.

We then caught up with Vicki and mum for lunch in the street. After this it was time for more sight seeing or I should say sight shopping in the markets before returning to the bus in the afternoon and heading for our motel. Novotel not far from the city. We did notice the the MSC cruise line operates out of here and they have a head office not far from our motel. Also noticed that two MSC ships were docked in the harbour, nighter of them were our ship the Opera.
We off loaded at the motel and up to our rooms for a rest and then it was down to the bar to socialise. A few drinks with members of our group and also other groups on the same tour. Then the usual dinner at the hotel.., this time all the meals were pretty good and then off to bed. Daylight savings start/finish here in the morning and we have an extra hours sleep 😴.

GOOD NIGHT ITALY 🇮🇹Læs mere