Genoa

Tues 3/26/18

Today we had scheduled a guided walk of Genoa and we had another beautiful sunny day with a very cold start to it.  Our landlady drove us to the train station so that we wouldn't have the trauma of trying to find parking and we took the train into Genoa where we met our guide, Anna,  at the station. The walking tour was to be 3 hours but we spent almost 4 1/2 totally enjoyable hours with Anna who was incredibly knowledgeable and personable. In addition to seeing lots of important sights, we stopped for fresh focaccia where the baker insisted on giving us extra pieces so that we all could taste the onion one....delicious and the best onions ever!! Then we stopped for coffee at a "bar" that was founded at the end of the 19th century and has been continuously in business since then.
Our guide on the far right


Genoa has a large medieval center and there are 42 palazzos both in and around the medieval center which have been named UNESCO world heritage sites.
Elegant palazzo garden

Pathway is made of sea stones and dates to the 1500's.

Another garden

We were able to go into the the entryways or gardens of several of them and in one, which is now the Genoa city hall, we were able to see several of the rooms.
One of the meeting rooms in the city hall on the right. The table is mirrored under the table cloth so when it's removed, the frescoed ceilings are reflected in the table top.
Old Genoa is characterized by very narrow streets called caruggi and also many stairs because the mountains come almost to the sea so as the city enlarged it had to build up onto the mountains.

We visited some churches (of, course) and were struck by the optical illusion of the floor of one of them. The interior of one of them also had unusual columns of red marble with white marble. This church was bombed during WWII and was restored subsequently.
Great optical illusion


We ended out tour at the port which underwent a giant renovation project in the early 1990's and is now a vibrant part of the city.
In the early 2000's the G8 summit was held in Genoa and extensive renovation was done around the largest of the palazzos and many of the surrounding streets were turned into pedestrian zones. When Anna left, we found we were in front of the Genoa Eataly so we had to check it out. It was crowded and we were tired so we took a rest on a bench at the port and I had my first gelato of the trip!
After being picked up at the station and returning home we picked up a couple things at the grocery store, went to the bank for some cash and came back to make dinner at home of rigatoni with meat sauce and some sauteed vegetables to include our weird new veg, catalogna spigate.

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