A morning in Genova

This morning Andrée and I walked up, and up, and up the hills of Genoa until we reached the old Castello D'Albertis, Museo delle Culture del Mondo where we stopped touring for the day.  I had a plane to catch, we hailed a taxi back down to sea level and had lunch before I departed for the airport.  Here are a few shots I took as we walked around Genoa.

Porta dei Vacca, Genova, dates from 1155 .... there is not much of the old walls left in Genova.

At the top of the hill is Castello D'Albertis, Museo delle Culture del Mondo which was our turnaround point.

There is much old scaffolding (rusty looking) on the buildings which reminded me of New York in the 1990's.  In NY the property owners put up scaffolding but did not do any work.  Why?  The scaffolding protected those walking below but more importantly it helped in preventing being sued.  New Mayor, new times, and the scaffolding had to come down if renovations were not being done.   When walking around NY in the 1990's it was a nusiance dodging scaffolding, it was horrible.

ITALIAN CAMINO
My journey with Andrée through Italy was like being on the camino.  We moved on regularly, we carried our luggage ourselves, we walked as often as we could around towns, we experienced new foods and we saw new places and people every day.  There is so much to digest of what we saw and learned along the way.

Home again ....
I am tired after over twenty-four hours traveling home.  There was a major storm in New York and the East Coast area, my flight was delayed for over two hours.  I had a long connection time as it was.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

I was inconvenienced by the storm with the flight delay but I now know those storms were major, killing 45 people throughout the East Coast.  So my flight delay problem was not a problem at all, it is all relative!  The storms still continue and today the Southern Plains and North Carolina are going to have tornadoes.  North of us in Texas there are bush fires.  Texas is in a state of drought having not had significant rain in months.  

Bev's visit

I have been in contact with my cousin, Bev, who will be arriving here on Sunday, April 24, for her month visit.  Bev and I will be touring Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah visiting the National and Native American Parks, Monument Valley and Navajoland.  

On our return from out west we will be visiting Louisiana to attend a Southern wedding on May 14.  I did not think of the wedding as a Southern Wedding until Bev mentioned it, then I thought of the movie Steel Magnolias.  Steel Magnolias are Louisiana women who have the beauty of the magnolia but are made of steel inside.  Did I get it correct Dawn?  Dawn is my long time Steel Magnolia friend. Will Bev, Lisa, and I create the fun for Dawn that she will need for the wedding as those ladies did for the bride in the movie.  

I will continue to Blog and hope you enjoy.  

Please Andrée add what you think will enhance the Blog story in Italy.

Genova

We traveled all day by train to arrive in Genoa at 15:40.  After a short taxi ride to the hotel and check-in we were out walking around this beautiful old city.  My camera battery was exhausted so I used my BlackBerry for photos of Genoa today.

 

Our hotel, Best Western Porto Antico, was about a block from here, down by the port with a major elevated highway between us and the sea.  On our first day we did not go toward the sea.   It was a drizzling, soft, gentle European rain that did not spoil the walk.  Genoa is of course on the Mediterranean Sea but I have not caught a glimpse of the sea yet.  The city is hilly and old reminding me of Lisbon or Porto in Portugal.  Today my view of the sea/port was from the piazza above.

The sea photos below are from the next day placed here because they fit with the sea theme .....

The port at Genova with an old sailing ship and its iconic ancient old lighthouse.

Still on our rainy walk .....

 Piazza de Ferrari - separates the old town from the new town.

The rain was truly light and we had rain jackets so we continued walking around town.

Some of the beautiful old palaces had huge garden terraces that I would have loved to visit.

Genoa is in the coastal mountain region of Liguria and it is the original home of Focaccia which is so popular now.  There are many Focacceria's (focaccia shop and/or bakery) in Genoa.  Unfortunately I forgot to try some while there, time was limited (22 hours).  Oh well, I will just have to return to Genoa.

We enjoyed a wonderful final meal together at a small restaurant near the hotel suggestion by receptionist.  Tomorrow I leave for Rome and Andree starts another journey, the one that brought her here to Italy but I will let her tell you about it.  I will possibly Blog from Rome tomorrow.

Andrée:  She's a bit tired, I think -- the sea is just across the road, where the boats are.  True, we didn't actually cross the road in the rain, preferring to find find a cafe for a restorative and then explore the old streets near our hotel.  Tomorrow we will have a look at the old port before Luiza leaves.  Dinner was a special pleasure, at a simple restaurant that has obviously been there forever.  It seems very popular for its tasty, unpretentious food.  Our meal was enlivened by an exchange of funny text messages with our friend Kees in Madrid, and a pleasant chat with a Swiss woman who captains a sailing yacht in the harbour.

Venezia

Where else but Venice would you see Venetian Glass in the outdoor light fittings?  We noticed them everywhere but I cannot add them all to the Blog as the page would end up too long.

Another lovely day in Venice where we went around Venice via the Grand Canal.   Here are a few scenes from our Grand Canal journey this morning.

We disembarked at Lido for a stroll around the area.  Lido is obviously a rich area with many old mansions some now apartments or hotels.  We walked the boulevard from one end to the other and then stopped for lunch before returning to the San Marco area.  We enjoyed the best vegetable soup at lunch in Lido, it was delicious and was followed by roasted chicken and baked potato and, as always, we washed it down with good Italian wine.

We returned to our hotel before heading out again as it had cooled down and I needed a jacket and Andrée wanted her fleece.  We walked to the Rialto Bridge from our hotel looking in the shops as we went.  There are some good shops and then there are the regular ugly tourist shops.

From Rialto we went on our Gondola ride and is was a great thing to do.  It is so calm on the gondola and the gondoliers are so skilled. Apparently gondolas are made with a curve in them so they don't go round and round in circles.

We went past where Marco Polo's house was and many older buildings, some of which people can no longer live on the first floor due to the houses sinking.  However, Andrée pointed out that some of the buildings look like the first floor has never been lived in.

The light was superb for photographing and we were both so happy that we took a ride on a Gondola in Venice, as opposed to Las Vegas (joking).  We had dinner in the Rialto area (at the restaurant above) before heading back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we move on to Genova.  It is a five hour fast-train journey with a switch of trains in Milano Centrale (Milano C.Le).  The high speed trains are comfortable but do take First Class, I would always suggest it to anybody who asks.

Burano and Murano

Burano
Can it get any better?  We are having a wonderful vacation and enjoying ourselves.  Every day has been delightful.  Today we decided to visit Burano, a pretty group of islands known for colorful houses.  Burano is about a one hour ferry ride from San Marco where we are staying.  We wandered the little streets crossing the canals on quaint bridges and stopping for lunch at the far end of town.

It was on the menu so I had to have it, camino memories ...... Coquilles Saint Jaques (and a green salad) while Andree enjoyed her Spaghetti with Clams which looked equally delicious.  Naturally you can't have an Italian meal without washing it down with wine, so needless to say we had a nice leisurely lunch before catching a vaporetto back to San Marcos.  The conchas actually look like mine that Barbara and Ken gave me before my first camino walk in 2002.  Barbara and Ken served my Coquilles Saint Jaques on the shell that day for lunch, it was so thoughtful of them.  Barbara had lived in Spain so she was aware where I was headed and what I was about to do more than I was.

 What do you think this is?  Sure now, you know.

Venetian blinds in Venice .... thanks Andrée for pointing this out to me :)

Murano
The ferry returns to San Marco via the Murano Islands so we decided on a stop to tour the glass galleries.  There are many furnaces and glass blowing factories on the island supplying the galleries and gift shops.  We had been warned by our hotel receptionist in Florence that some shops sell Chinese glass products so we watched for it and know that what we bought is pure Murano.  Many shops have signs announcing "No Chinese Glass here".   Some of the art works were spectacular and others not so, some are a little over the top.

Then I spotted this sign .... at least the Murano shop sellers want you to know they have the real deal.

The islands of Murano is not as pretty as the Burano Islands but is worth a visit.  The glass making industry was moved to Murano in 1291 because of the fire hazard from the furnaces.  In 1291 the houses of Venice were mainly made from wood so fire was a concern.

Cometa Di Vetro - Comet Glass Star. 

Later in the afternoon, and although it was a little rich, I had to have it .... chocolate hedgehog!  Australian style hedgehog, not quite what my mother used to make but still producing fond memories.  Perhaps this is the original recipe and came to Australia from the Italians as Genoa was one of the first places to use cacao-cocoa.  As I finished the last bite I realized that I should have photographed it for Stephen who loved hedgehog when he was a kid (I don't know if he still does).  We did not know that the order was two slices each or we would have only ordered one serving, true!  Gave us both memories of the Lemon Meringue pie at the Grand Canyon with Kees and we spent some time laughing about that.  It was a long beautiful day at both stops.

After Burano and Murano we returned to our hotel to catch up on email and Blog.  We needed to  make and confirm the hotel reservations for our next stops.  We have another day in Venice and then the five hour train journey to Genova on Thursday.  On Friday I fly to Roma and onto Houston on Saturday.

Fantastic .... I can hear the thunder .... we are going to have a big storm tonight.  It is nearly eleven and time for sleeping, oh how lovely it is to lay in bed and listen to thunder outside.

Venezia

We arrived at Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia at 11:30am and then Andrée worked out how to get to Piazza San Marco (San Marco Square) on the vaporetto (ferry) while I stayed with the luggage. Andrée did a fantastic job in selecting this area to stay, it was ideal for visiting the other areas of Venice either by foot or ferry.

Above, we are just about to arrive at the Piazza San Marco ferry stop.  We will grow to recognize this station quickly to know that we need to get off the boat.  Upon arrival at San Marco we decided to have lunch at a great cafe - with super friendly service and over priced food - it was such a great spot we went there a few times.  We watched the world walk by since we had two more hours until check-in time - this was a great way to get comfortable here. 

There was surprisingly not many pigeons at Saint Mark's while we were there.  I thought there would be more pigeons from all the vacation or travel photographs, movies, or television that I have seen over the years.

This is all we could see of the Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs) due to renovations.  It was disappointing for us but then it will hopefully look better when, or if, we return to Venice.

I wanted to buy some oil paintings for Dawnie to frame for me and surprisingly I ran out of time.  Then I ask myself "where do you have wall space to put them?".

The streets are delightfully narrow, it is wonderful being in Venice.

Pinch us we are in Venice.  We were planning our second week in Italy and suddenly the plan was Venice which both of us were thrilled to include.  Ah .... Venice, it is so beautiful walking around the narrow streets full of interesting things to photograph and shops to peruse.  I am on the hunt for another pair of Ray Ban's and a passenger on one of the ferries had just the pair I would like. I should have asked which country they were from but one never knows what language is spoken by the folks around you.  I did find new Ray Ban's not like those I had seen and different to what I normally go for but I like them.

We have had our worst meal and food service right here at the hotel we are staying in.  A group of folks were looking at the menu posted outside and possibly wondering about the place, Andrée and I were naughty and gave them the thumbs down sign.  The folks waved and nodded thanks to us and then moved on.  We did not want anybody else to suffer as we had done with the smug Maître D, the surly waitress and bad food service.  Andrée and I would hesitate to recommend the hotel (Best Western San Marco) except that it is in a great area - just do not eat at their restuarant.  The Rialto Bridge is just minutes away from the hotel along narrow streets with interesting shops.

Our first closeup view of the Rialto Bridge.  It is wide with a narrow street down the middle of it.  Beautiful day as you can see by the sky.