Savoia Majestic 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 ...

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 ...

This morning we woke up to get ready to go on the Historic Center walking tour of Genoa. We had a nice breakfast at the buffet and I even found a decaf cappa for breakfast too. We met in the lounge at 8:45 and got on a little boat in the harbor and had a tour of the harbor and then got off at the aquarium and started our tour. Genoa is very nice and the historic section dates back ...

Destination 404<br><br>km197'196<br><br>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!

Partiremo fra un mese circa. Oggi sto preparando il guardaroba invernale per la vita di tutti i giorni in Piemonte. La stufa è accesa dalle 6.45 e oggi non ha ancora smesso di fare freddo: il sole non l'ho ancora visto. I vestiti estivi sono pronti per essere messi in valigia ma è ancora troppo presto ...

... hesitation. You must pick a gap in between the trucks and/or traffic in the slow lane to weave in with. This is not that difficult, as I have said the truck traffic in this lane is moving around 50mph. <br><br>Stepping Out: As we all have heard you must be cautious when you step out into the fast lane. Most of the time this is not a problem. But here&#8217;s the catch. The cruise speed of the fast lane is between 95 &#8211; 105 mph. At this ...

... meet Alda's next au pair girl (Chiara) and chill out with her in Genova as her Zia (Aunty) lives there and she is staying there til she comes here (and I leave) She is from Geelong, but her family are Sicilian. We had a great day, it was perfect weather, and I enjoyed wandering and getting lost!! The bus system was crazy and completely complicated and unreliable. I still maintain I am a train girl, they are so so much easier. So we spent alot of the day going back and ...

... of Christopher Colombus and something about Mussolini, the English and bombings through expressive hand gestures. We gave him the old smile and nod. He was incredibly helpful even considering our lack of Italian. We set off for the aquarium (apparently Europes largest) and got lost on the way through a series of small streets the size of an alley that were lined with shops. The buildings were all very tall so we couldn't use landmarks to navigate. Its ...

... mass (kind of coincidence that his birthday falls on a sunday, i think not) and then we went to a real Roma football match. I have never been to anything like it. I wasnt going to drink because we had finals the next day, but i found myself buying one beer, and then another, and then another, and pretty soon i couldnt stop! I think it must have been the heat, but those beers realy got to me. the fans sing songs the whole game, and while i had no idea what they were saying i sang along ...

... I was so eager to get up and hike in the nature of it all. I started on the basic trail #2, which is the easiest of all the trails and that led me down one town to Corniglia. It took about 1 1-2 hours. And it was a pretty easy hike, with a few tricky passes but nothing fancy. When I got to Corniglia, I decided to go up into the mountains on one the harder hikes (#7a). I am SOOO glad I did. Heading further south towards the town of Manarola... the views were ...