Monday, April 21, 2014

Genoa + Columbus's House

Genoa, Italy
First of all, I would never recommend visiting Genoa on a Sunday. Almost nothing was open except really downtown. And who wants to stay downtown all day? 

We hopped aboard another sightseeing bus and zipped around the city to see the major sites. That day was soooo muggy and not very sunny so I felt like I should be cold, but really I was sweating.
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
I took most of my photos from the bus because it's a much better vantage point than on foot, hence all the nifty angles.
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
We hopped off the bus at the Piazza De Ferrari (which was really beautiful and in the picture below) and gallivanted off to see Columbus's house nearby. 
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
It's a pretty small house, as you can see. There used to be other houses just like it connected on either side of it all up and down the street. There's not much inside except a little bit of original flooring underneath some plexiglas, but we weren't allowed to take pictures anyway. It was still fun to see it and now we can say we have been inside Columbus's home. The tickets for the house also come with tickets to go up in the medieval gates to the city for an extra euro or something really cheap. The buildings in this part of Genoa were really pretty!
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
We climbed up the Porta Soprana aka the gates of Genoa to see the lovely view. Porta Soprana was built around 1155 and has two different towers that you can climb. We were literally the only people there. We looked down on all the buildings around us and into the small rooftop terraces full of lovely flowers and greenery. It made me really want a rooftop terrace. Isn't terrace a lovely word?
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Going through these pictures has really made me appreciate just how tan I was by the end of this cruise (and how pasty I am now). Look at my legs! And I was using SPF 45! I never just tan. I burn. I am the kind of person who gets burned slightly (or so I think) and people gasp when they see me. I have that kind of skin.
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
This was the part of Genoa I wanted to see: the stacks of colorful buildings and the rolling hills. We tried to take a bus up to a famous cemetery, but we could not figure out the bus schedule no matter how hard we looked at it. It was printed out on a piece of 8.5x11 paper and taped to the bus stop. And we never saw any buses stop the entire day! I'm telling you, don't go to Genoa on a Sunday unless you are prepared to walk. Or take a taxi. We walked for a while along the river and when we decided we had gone far enough, we tried to find a taxi. There were none to be found. Isn't that how it always works? Seriously, go to Genoa on a weekday.I will say this though, we probably passed like five people the entire time we were walking, so that is a bonus. Genoa is not very crowded on a Sunday.
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
It got very stormy all of a sudden and we had to hide in the train station for a while. While pretending to study train schedules, we encountered a very angry (and possibly drunk) Italian man who wouldn't stop screaming at the random passersby. A train-station woman made him leave eventually, but it was an entertaining break from all the walking.
Genoa, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Also, here we are on the night that we sailed past the two islands of Corsica and Sardinia. I'm pretty sure that's Corsica in the background.
Mediterranean Cruise June 2013
Mediterranean Cruise June 2013

So I'd like to end by saying that this post has been sitting half-finished in my drafts folder for more than a month! I've been guiltily thinking about it almost every day and finally decided that today was the day I finally finished that sucker! I've just been so exhausted. Nearly four weeks ago, I finally put on my big girl panties and landed myself not one, but TWO new jobs. Then I started taking a calculus class down at the local community college (I don't want to talk about it. ugh, math). So I guess you could say I've been pretty busy lately.

As a non-member of the workforce for the last three-ish years, I have had a large abundance of free time to blog and edit photos and just generally hang out and have a good time (and also do laundry and develop my homemaking skills, obviously. Thanks, for the three years off, Forrest!). 

No longer! I am now an employed woman with a schedule!

I'm sorry, poor neglected blog, I'll try not to go another four weeks without updating you. I missed you!

P.S. There is one last stop on this trip: Marseilles, France!



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