Compio trent'anni il mese prossimo

Don't say it!!.....
(one of the dozens of paintings about John the Baptist, get over it!!!)



Ceiling in the Genova museum

Ambulance in the alley!

on the roof!

How many do you want?

Ancient amputation saw, he he.

More view from the roof

and more.....

Alley

See, I can speak Italian, even if it isn't quite true!

Well instead of ending up in Nice, we decided to blow the border and get to Italy. We got off the train in Genova and lugged our bags out of the station into a not very attractive, commercial dock area. Once again, lots of men were just sitting around and I could feel their eyes boring into my back as we walked by, I wasn't in the mood.......... We took a taxi downtown and found a nice hotel in a 'nice' area. I'm sorry, I just don't do the cheap, dingy thing.

On the way, we went through Canne and Monaco. Only saw the stations though sorry. We did see all the spectacle of the huge yachts moored off shore from Canne however. The festival is on at the moment. No celebs at the station.

We walked around the corner of our hotel in Genova and found a lovely little restaurant full of locals, good sign. This was about 10pm by now and people were still waiting to be fed. I had the best pasta EVER, a simple tagliatelle with butter sauce and truffle shavings, mmmmmm. at the end of the street is this huge wall (see pic) with stripes and crest painted on them. Grand!

Yesterday, again we wandered the streets and alleys. Some looked a little questionable until you see confident young women walking through them, it's normal practice. It's hard to portray the feel of these alleys in photos; narrow, twisiting and some quite spooky. Again we sort of got lost but it was easy to find our way back. We stopped for lunch in a cute Cafe in one of these alleys. While eating, we heard the whine of a siren approach. It only had one way to go...... squeeze it's way up the alley, between us and the next wall. Minutes later the space was taken buy a trio of musicians; saxophone, accordian and guitar, very atmospheric.

Before lunch, we went to the Genova Museum (I know I said No more!). Obviously they are not as well funded as the capital cities. The attendants actually direct the way you move around the rooms and one woman, an imposing Russian looking woman, followed us into every room and virtually looked over our shoulders. Disconcerting but very funny. The lighting on each painting was a huge old fashioned light fitting, not very subtle. On the top floor, the young attendant motioned for us to go up further in the lift. He took us onto the roof, then up stairs to a viewing platform. We had 360 deg views of the whole city. I took some video but not sure it worked. Amazing how all these places have literally been built on top of each other.

Anyway, enough for now. Ciao