Barone Genoa

Flew to Milan from Dublin then took the train to Savona to board the cruise. Quaint little seaport town which I wish I had more time to explore. Forgot to take a picture of the ship! Not sure how I feel about a big cruise ship (3,800 passengers) but the price was right so thought I would experience it!

As the traffic had been horrendous yesterday we decided to hit the autostrada and pay the tolls to save our sanity and hightail it to our next destination. 130kms and 10 Euro later we arrived in Santa Margherita Ligure, which is just up the road from Portofino.

This place is a bit larger than we are used to and Italian towns all have small car parks and narrow ...

Sadie and I left beatiful peaceful Florence to mean unhelpful Genoa. We have been so spoiled in our travels up till this point. We usually have a bit of train trouble but nothing that can't be fixed or solved within an hour. Well landing in Genoa was not the case. The train ride up the coast was breath taking, I wanted so badly to jump off the train and stay a few days in one of the coastal towns. I think for my next trip to Europe its a must. The houses are so ...

... of the city and had the BEST focaccia bread ever! After we left the group we had lunch at a little place with outside cafe seats and it was terrific. Rachel had a spicy pizza, Il Diablo and I had a zucchini tart. Then we wandered back to the ship and now Rachel is at the gym and I am updating my blog! We are a lucky group here! Tonight is casual night thank goodness. More to come!

Destination 404

km197'196

A wonderful winding route via a inland section have lead me from Pisa to the coastline around Genova. But since in that part of the environment it was very hard to find a spot for bushcamping I took the toll freeway to prevent to get stuck in the chaotic traffic of Genova and headed north into the highlands of the northern region of Genova. A beatiful spot at the top of a mountain has provided perfect views to sunset and sunrise, but a bloody cold night!

... a Singapore.

Lui è un cuoco statunitense sregolato, simpaticissimo e assolutamente fuori dalle righe ho letto anche il suo "Kitchen confidential" e mi ha divertito molto.

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... place was closed and then got lost for 3 hours searching for somewhere to eat. A local bar told me to climb down the layers of roads to a pizza place which i could never find. I found the dog from Turner & Hooch standing up with his head and front legs over a tiny fence staring at me. Scared the s((t out of me! I eventually found the bus to take me back up the mountain and am now full on chocolate croissants and chips from ...

... on a mini-train with Ethan, walked through a souk exhibition and watched the fish in the ocean. The next day we returned to the port area to visit the aquarium, purported to be one of the best in the world. It was quite incredible. It was built over a large space, including a portion where you walked over a covered bridge and onto a oceanliner-sized ship! The exhibitions were fantastic ...

... and squid mixed through it. An interesting combination, but oh so tasty. When you think of the Mediterranean you think of golden beaches and warms seas. In reality though the beaches around here are gravel (or even rocks), and the water is quite cold (Auckland's are probably warmer). What was more amusing though is that the locals and visitors thought these rock inlets were paradise and it couldn't get any better. As we made our way along the coast ...

... have at a language school!! This time though, many people were leaving the next day, so we called it quits at around 3am - shows you what was more important, school or catching the train on time. We had a very special 2 weeks in San Giovanni, and we've met some great people - I hope we manage to stay in touch with a few! Caught the train yesterday morning to Florence, then to Riomaggiore via ...