Best Western Hotel City Genoa

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

... distance from the train station. Sadie and I take turns exploring the area, it is so cool that the ocean is so near. This seems like a great town to spend time in. The time comes to get on our connecting train then the bad news comes that we have gotten off at the wrong stop. Little did we know that there are two stops in Genoa. We miss our connecting train by 20 minutes and now come to find out are stuck in this town for the next 3 hours. The horrible ...

... the 11C and there aren't any Roman ruins because the Genovans needed to build somewhere so they just built on top of the old stuff! Anyways it is built on a hill and the modern part is at the top and to get there you travel over little tiny streets and even smaller alley like paths where the buildings appear to almost meet at their tops. We also saw the 16th C palaces nearing the ...

... again. Being on the coast I went with the special that day, penne in tomato sauce with mussels! and a coke. For only 8 euro I had a huge plate of pasta with easily over a dozen mussels. The prices were nothing like Paris!<br><br>After lunch the rain started to let up. Feeling a bit more adventurous we took the train to Monterosso. There was a nice stretch along the shore and along the cliffs to walk from the train station to the center of the city. The girls and I rummaged ...

... Eisenhower tunnel with more curves less light and cars going less than half your speed next to you for 11 minutes solid. It gets a little weird having inches to spare on your left and traffic on your right. And inevitably, once you emerge from the tunnel, you are immediately on a bridge that spans the space between the next tunnels. So there is no more room for error on the bridge, just better light, and then into the next tunnel&#8230; Over ...

... we zoom zoomed through this dark tunnel there were splashes of light, and I saw the...OCEAN!<br>It gave my spirit such a lift it was incredible!<br><br>I got off the train, and made like a crazy person to the railing, and just soaked it into my brain, I didn't realize that I had missed the openness of space, I had been cooped up in these busy busy cites, and then in a valley where everything is bascially closing in ...

... vending machine.<br><br>Italy is very different to say France or Germany. Everything is very old and run down. Yet beautiful. It's almost like every building could be a tourist attraction in itself. No opportunity for a jump shot. I kept my eyes open but I didn't want to leave my camera and bag on the ground when all the walkways and piazzas were full of people. The right conditions are needed to perform a jumpshot!<br><br><br>

... from jellyfish to penguins and even piranhas. We were fortunate to see frisky dolphins which I don't imagine happens too regularly. I think our favourite sea creatures were the giant turtles. They are so majestic and gentle looking. This was our last stop in Italy and we are heading off for a few days in France before continuing on to the UK. As they say in Italy, grazie e arrivederci!

... It said 'kitchen' but really only had a microwave, and surprisingly a lot of metal pots and pans.. completely useless in a microwave. We found another really cheap hostel which ended up being one of the best and worst places we have stayed. The woman owner probably hadn't cleaned the place since the 1980's so it was pretty gross, (with bed bug bites to prove it) but we had a great group of people staying there who we spent most of our time with. There were about 7 Americans ...

Greetings and yes, this time this entry comes bearing pictures! I think they are all a good variety of what we have been up to in the past few weeks. Last weekend we went to Genoa for just a day and a half. We have been experiencing ugly weather all over Italy no matter where we go it seems, but the sun did come out for a bit in Genoa and made for a very nice evening walking along the water. Also, Genoa is home to the world's second largest aquarium, so we did not miss the opportunity ...