Today I should have walked 19km from the Genova neighbourhood Voltri, where I finished yesterday, to the centre of the city. The walk would have taken me along the coast past the container docks, the airport and the massive cruise ship terminal. Instead, I decided to walk the 19km, but sightseeing in Genova.
The owner of the apartment we are staying, gave us a map with four tours already outlined. So we decided to follow those tours. They were
1. The Palaces
2- The old town
3. Shopping
4. The Port
It was Sunday morning as we walked towards the heart of Genova, Piazza de Ferrari with its fountain and beautiful buildings, and the main commercial street. Mostly closed on Sunday morning (but open later). We’d already passed the Victory Arc celebrating soldiers from WW1 and a park celebrating the cities maritime history.
At the Piazza, the Milan to San Remo veteran car race was being sent off on the Genoa to San Remo stage – unfortunately the presentation of the cars took time as there seemed to be mechanical problems so there were lots of waiting time to send each car off. We saw a handful before we moved on.
The Old Town was packed with tourists. The old town is dense, the streets and alleyways very narrow, the houses tall and many places with clothes hanging to dry across the street.
We stopped at the Cathedral of San Lorenzo an imposing striped building with the black and white stripes we have seen at many of the churches in Liguria.
We visited a market and stopped to appreciate a decorated Fiat500 parked at one of the squares.
At the port we saw the Neptune, a replica of a pilot ship and nothing to do with Columbus, and a mosaic depicting people migrating to Argentina. There were a few cruise ships, evidently nowhere near as many as during the peak season.
The Palaces, and there are many in Genova, are mainly situated on Via Garibaldi. Most are now museums and were closed until the afternoon as it was Sunday, but the one that was open with an exhibition of sports pictures in the courtyard, was very elegant.
We ended up at the remains of the boyhood home of Christopher Columbus and the old gate into the Genova.
By the time we were ready for lunch, the restaurants were already packed, so we walked back to the apartment and purchased a bottle of Prosecco and miniature cakes (again). We asked for 10 cakes, but sales person wasn’t a good counter and we had to stop him when he reached 14.
We went for a walk in the local area before dinner where we went back to the same restaurant to try their pizza, which was supposed to be very good, and lived up to our expectations.