We had to get up very early this morning (6:30) to get ready and catch the train to Genova. When we were ready to go we said our emotional goodbyes to the Beltrami family. Ivana cried and said she'd confront her fear of flying to come to England and visit, which was very touching.
Claudio drove us to the station and we were in plenty of time to catch our train at 8:40. It was then announced the train was delayed by an hour! This was later reduced to half an hour, but when the train did arrive it sat at Stradella for fifteen minutes and everybody got off while it waited. Once we were on the move the train seemed very slow and, taking everything into account, we arrived in Genova Brignole about an hour late. We also had trouble with our printed ticket because Claudio had printed the receipt and not the tickets, but the guard let us go.
We walked straight to our hotel, which took two minutes, where we left our bags in storage. We then had the rest of the day to explore Genova. First we walked up the main high street to the orange fountain - the water is orange, presumably caused by a mineral or a metal. We sat there and took photos in the sun before entering Palazzo Ducale where we found a car boot-style sale with lots of stalls selling old items, dating back a long time (jewellery, furniture, snuff boxes, pen knives etc). It continued outside where we found a stall selling pin badges. We bought an Italian flag pin and two accordion pins. The stall holder gave us a free one of Genoa FC after I engaged him in Italian conversation about football.
After buying a map we walked down a busy street, passing the Duomo (cathedral) and found a little cafe, where we ate sandwiches and shared a salad. Stephanie wanted to buy a Genova souvenir, so we went to a visitors centre and bought a magnet. We managed to then find our way to the harbour, which was teaming with people, and we sat in the sweltering sun looking at boats and the sea. Genova is a big port and there were lots of huge ferries and ships. We walked past the aquarium after baulking at the prices and came across... a pirate ship!! It cost 5€ each to go on board, so we thought "Why not?!" It was teaming with children and their parents. Everything on board felt fake and cheap - the cannons were plastic, but we later discovered why. It wasn't an actual old ship. It was built in 1985 and used as the set for Robert Polanski's film "Pirates". It cost $8.2m to build and was capable of sailing at speeds up to 5 knots.
Next we confused ourselves. We'd found where we wanted to go next on the map but I completely underestimated the scale of the map so we ended up taking an utterly pointless one-stop Metro journey. Oh well, it was fun! We eventually walked to our destination - via Garibaldi; a street famous for its beautiful 16th century architecture. There were speakers all along it playing classical music. From there we walked back to the orange fountain and took the Metro one stop back to Brignole. We went back to the hotel to check into our room and collect our bags. At 18:30 we walked up the brick steps, as on Wednesday, and took pictures of Genova in the evening sun.
After descending the steps we walked through nearby streets in search of somewhere to eat. We came across a delightful little restaurant, furnished in brick and wood. We both had pasta dishes.
Finally, we went in search of an open gelateria - easier said than done at 21:00 on a Sunday night! We eventually found one and ate the last ice cream of our trip while walking back to the hotel. We did our final bits of packing and went to bed.
Ciao x
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