We had three days in Genova, Italy (pronounced Zena in Genoese). We stayed in the heart but of the downtown area with our couchsurfing hosts in a cozy apartment. They had two cats that were very cute but they shed like no other. There was cat hair everywhere, which I could somewhat handle but Tyson had a case of the old spoiled-by-cruise-cleanliness. He was having a hard time and wanted to spend as little time in the apartment as possible. The first day that we arrived, we had a week's worth of catching up to do on the computor which took us the better part of the day. At one point, about thirty minutes before the cruise ship was scheduled to depart from Genova, we realized that we had left two shirts behind in the boat. So Tyson ran the entire way back to the boat without stopping and managed to just make it in time and get them back. We were lucky that time.
Our hosts are very talented, the guy is a professional cross country skier, he is also a skilled architect, a very good artist and a musician (just from what we learned in our few days there). The girlfriend is a cook who made us home made pizza for dinner the first night. She cooked two large authentic Italian pizzas, one was called a margharita pizza with tomato sauce and mozzarella, and the other one was similar but also had sausages. We all sat together and ate. Since it was a Friday night, our hosts were going out but we are old farts, so we opted to stay home and sleep.
The next day we managed to leave the house by ten to go shopping in the city, we checked out the markets and the coastal walks before heading to the beaches that the family from California (from the cruise) had told us about. There are beaches all along the coast so we could take the train from stop to stop and check out all the different ones. The first beach took us nearly one hour to get to but we met a young couple from Nova Scotia on the train. We talked to them for the ride and they were travelling Europe for about six weeks. We stopped first at Recco which was a beautiful beach, there was no sand at these beaches but rather small rocks. We were not impressed with that at first but it worked out to be quite comfortable. We walked right into a quaint restaurant that the family had a reccomended called La Bruchetta. We ordered foccacia bread and it was very tasty, the mozzarella was out of this world. We layed on the beach and accidentally fell asleep for two hours which left us dark skinned and refreshed. We decided to walk through the small town and then take the train one stop further to Comogli beach. This beach was the most beautiful of the three but also very busy. There was barely any space on the rocks to lay our towels. We walked around and the tall flat colourful buildings created a backsplash that was so picturesque that it looked like a postcard. They stood behind large bright rocks jetting over the clear blue sea. There were many cafes and gelato places along the water that were busy with customers. This is the area that locals frequent as opposed to the more touristy beaches. We saw a couple in their wedding clothes taking photos and people watched for some time there. We sat by the beach and I dipped my legs in the water while Tyson jumped in and played around for a while.
The next stop off the train was Santa Margharita which was also very lovely like the other two beaches. They were all equally beautiful but each had its own unique qualities that made them different. At the last beach we walked along the water and checked out the markets. Towards the end of the day we walked by a very large line up and Tyson told me to wait while he went to find out what it was for. As I waited, people stood behind me and the line was steadily growing so we knew it was for something good. Tyson came back and said that they were giving out fresh fish dinners by donation for a cause that we could not understand because it was in Italian. So we continued to wait and finally got our plate filled with several peices of fish, a huge king prawn, a slice of lemon and a cup of carbonated water. We ate by the water and when we were done we got in line again for seconds. This was not the best idea because by the time we got our second serving, we realized that we were not hungry anymore but we still forced half of it down before feeding the rest back to the sea. We watched the thousands of little fishies eat their relatives. We watched all the people dressed up for dates, jogging, walking their dogs and enjoying the scenery and the perfect weather around the water`s edge. Around nine pm we walked back to the train station but the next train was not until eleven pm. We played a few rounds of crazy eights, chatted and watched a drunk guy fight a vending machine repeatedly until the train arrived. During the one hour ride back to Genova, the ticket guy checked our ticket and almost gave us a two hundred euro fine for not validating it properly. Thankfully he had some mercy and let us go with a warning. By the time we reached the house it was after midnight but there were still a lot of people out enjoying the night. Our host told us that it was some kind of holiday about asking Saint John for luck for the community. So they light a big fire and dance around it through the night.
The next day we slept in until about eleven am and even when we woke up, we took our time showering and getting ready. It was not until about two pm when we actually left the house to walk along the markets where Tyson bought a purse imported from India. We found it rather Ironic that we came from India where the currency was fifty to one and where we could have had my mother take our goods home for free but instead, we bought Indian stuff in Italy where the currency is way above the dollar and every gram counts. We continued walking down by the water where we saw another MSC ship and reminiced about our cruising days. We walked to an internet cafe and tried to print off our boarding passes for our Ryan Air flights but it did not work. We tried several times but we had no luck, this is quite worrisome because if we do not print our boarding passes they will charge us eighty dollars each to do it at the airport.
We stopped at a Carefour grocery store and bought big cups of pudding with whipped cream and orange pop and went to the water to eat again. After our snack I fell asleep on a bench for some time while Tyson did some more people watching. When I woke up a large crowd had gathered near us. We watched as hundreds of people dressed in multicolored cloaks and costumes walked in a parade carrying gigantic crosses. They walked around in a fenced off area to music while the crowd watched. There were people of all ages and ethnicities walking through the pain of carrying the heavy cross in the heat. We realizeed that this was also connected with the St. John holiday that our host was explaining to us the night before. We walked back to the house and Tyson ran out to get some pasta and sauce for dinner. He cooked while I organized life a little on the computor. The dishwasher is broken in our apartment but we cannot find any friend to stop by and take a look at it so we will have to call in a professional to rip us off for a small problem. We are also working on some other planning for the trip and work back home.
We ate dinner while watching an extremely long movie called `2012` and then we slept. Tyson had to keep the window open for fresh air which caused me to be eaten alive by mossies all night. I woke up to soak myself in OFF and Afterbite several times. In the morning we had to get up early to pack the last of our things and catch our train to Milano. Our train left at nine am and we managed to make it a bit ahead of time. The train took nearly two hours and it was a comfortable ride. We ate breakfast and blogged until we reached our destination.
We had a three hour layover in Milano with several things to do during that time. With all of our baggage in tow, we ran to return a couple of things that we had bought when we were in Milano the last time but we no longer needed. First we exchanged some batteries we had bought for the old camera for new a luggage lock because the old one stopped working. Next we continued on to return other batteries we had bought from a bigger grocery store. We had stocked up because the old camera was going through batteries like crazy but we did not need the extra weight of them anymore. With a little convincing, they took them back. Then we went to a Camera shop where we had seen a camera we liked but it had been sold during our week away so we bought a different one. It is a Samsung and it should do us just fine for the next month or so while we are away. We stopped at the Duomo where it was still busy as ever. We checked out the camera to make sure everything was in order and all the parts were present which they were. We took some photos and rested for a short time before strapping on the bags again and speed walking to China town. Here we bought a memory card for the camera and then half walked and half ran back to the train station with only two minutes to spare before the train took off towards Venice. In total we walked over twenty kilometers in the three hours and completed everything we intended to do. By the time we got to the train however, I was about to collapse, the weather had been very hot outside and I was wearing flip flops so I was drained and in pain. As soon as we sat down both of us guzzled down several bottles of water, ate four oranges, two muffins, and a cup of pudding. After updating the blog we slept until our destination.
After unsuccessful attempts at finding a suitable couchsurfing host in Venice, we managed to book a hostel just outside the island. It was supposed to be a fifteen minute bus ride outside of the city with a pool, fitness center and wifi so we were happy. We had read some horrible reviews on the place but the price was right so we decided to give it a chance. The directions to the bus were great, the ride was fifteen minutes as promised by the hostel website, then we walked about ten minutes and we were there. It was the greatest place! It was very clean with a very huge pool and two large whirlpools. It was packed with people and we got our own bungalow for the same price as a tent. The staff were friendly, the wifi worked (most of the time), the showers had hot water and were clean so there was no more that we could ask for. We were very confused by the bad reviews online because we had a great time at this place. The first night we took much needed showers and then tried to organize our bags. We threw several kilograms of stuff away, made a maybe pile and packed everything we had to keep. Our flight with Ryan Air is in a few days and we are only allowed (strictly) ten kilograms each of luggage so we are a bit nervous about how much stuff we have at the moment. After hours of going through our stuff we slept.
The next mornng we got up at a decent hour and head out to Venice. We had to run several hundred meters to catch the bus while everyone watched and some cheered us on. We caught the bus but the driver charged us double the fare because we did not know that we had to pre-purchase tickets at newspaper stands outside and on the bus we had to pay an extra fee. So we were a bit upset about this but we tried not to let it ruin our day.
Venice is, as everyone may tell you, the most unique city ever. It is entirely on water and the only mode of transportation is by boat or by foot. There are no cars or busses and it is beautiful. It is by far one of the most touristy places we have ever been and there is rarely a time when no one else is around with bags of shpping and melting gelato cones but we had a lot of fun. We wandered to places we had no idea about all day. There were gigantic churches such as the one of St. Mark's. We waited in line for about thirty minutes to see the inside of that one but you have to pay for most parts and there is a large souvenier shop at the end which takes away from the whole spiritual aspect of it all. Inside was lovely though with a great deal of detail and gothic beauty. Throughout the city, there were lots of beggars kneeling on the ground or following people around for money. There were many shopping and sight seeing and the people watching was great. The prices are very high of course with one 300ml cup of juice costing the equivalent of $4.50. We bought a tons of groceries including chocolate croisssants, milk chocolate bars, potato chips, ham, bread, oranges, cheese and pop for dinner and head back to our hostel around six pm. We got into our swim suits and layed by the pool until it closed at eight pm.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
Our hosts are very talented, the guy is a professional cross country skier, he is also a skilled architect, a very good artist and a musician (just from what we learned in our few days there). The girlfriend is a cook who made us home made pizza for dinner the first night. She cooked two large authentic Italian pizzas, one was called a margharita pizza with tomato sauce and mozzarella, and the other one was similar but also had sausages. We all sat together and ate. Since it was a Friday night, our hosts were going out but we are old farts, so we opted to stay home and sleep.
The next day we managed to leave the house by ten to go shopping in the city, we checked out the markets and the coastal walks before heading to the beaches that the family from California (from the cruise) had told us about. There are beaches all along the coast so we could take the train from stop to stop and check out all the different ones. The first beach took us nearly one hour to get to but we met a young couple from Nova Scotia on the train. We talked to them for the ride and they were travelling Europe for about six weeks. We stopped first at Recco which was a beautiful beach, there was no sand at these beaches but rather small rocks. We were not impressed with that at first but it worked out to be quite comfortable. We walked right into a quaint restaurant that the family had a reccomended called La Bruchetta. We ordered foccacia bread and it was very tasty, the mozzarella was out of this world. We layed on the beach and accidentally fell asleep for two hours which left us dark skinned and refreshed. We decided to walk through the small town and then take the train one stop further to Comogli beach. This beach was the most beautiful of the three but also very busy. There was barely any space on the rocks to lay our towels. We walked around and the tall flat colourful buildings created a backsplash that was so picturesque that it looked like a postcard. They stood behind large bright rocks jetting over the clear blue sea. There were many cafes and gelato places along the water that were busy with customers. This is the area that locals frequent as opposed to the more touristy beaches. We saw a couple in their wedding clothes taking photos and people watched for some time there. We sat by the beach and I dipped my legs in the water while Tyson jumped in and played around for a while.
The next stop off the train was Santa Margharita which was also very lovely like the other two beaches. They were all equally beautiful but each had its own unique qualities that made them different. At the last beach we walked along the water and checked out the markets. Towards the end of the day we walked by a very large line up and Tyson told me to wait while he went to find out what it was for. As I waited, people stood behind me and the line was steadily growing so we knew it was for something good. Tyson came back and said that they were giving out fresh fish dinners by donation for a cause that we could not understand because it was in Italian. So we continued to wait and finally got our plate filled with several peices of fish, a huge king prawn, a slice of lemon and a cup of carbonated water. We ate by the water and when we were done we got in line again for seconds. This was not the best idea because by the time we got our second serving, we realized that we were not hungry anymore but we still forced half of it down before feeding the rest back to the sea. We watched the thousands of little fishies eat their relatives. We watched all the people dressed up for dates, jogging, walking their dogs and enjoying the scenery and the perfect weather around the water`s edge. Around nine pm we walked back to the train station but the next train was not until eleven pm. We played a few rounds of crazy eights, chatted and watched a drunk guy fight a vending machine repeatedly until the train arrived. During the one hour ride back to Genova, the ticket guy checked our ticket and almost gave us a two hundred euro fine for not validating it properly. Thankfully he had some mercy and let us go with a warning. By the time we reached the house it was after midnight but there were still a lot of people out enjoying the night. Our host told us that it was some kind of holiday about asking Saint John for luck for the community. So they light a big fire and dance around it through the night.
The next day we slept in until about eleven am and even when we woke up, we took our time showering and getting ready. It was not until about two pm when we actually left the house to walk along the markets where Tyson bought a purse imported from India. We found it rather Ironic that we came from India where the currency was fifty to one and where we could have had my mother take our goods home for free but instead, we bought Indian stuff in Italy where the currency is way above the dollar and every gram counts. We continued walking down by the water where we saw another MSC ship and reminiced about our cruising days. We walked to an internet cafe and tried to print off our boarding passes for our Ryan Air flights but it did not work. We tried several times but we had no luck, this is quite worrisome because if we do not print our boarding passes they will charge us eighty dollars each to do it at the airport.
We stopped at a Carefour grocery store and bought big cups of pudding with whipped cream and orange pop and went to the water to eat again. After our snack I fell asleep on a bench for some time while Tyson did some more people watching. When I woke up a large crowd had gathered near us. We watched as hundreds of people dressed in multicolored cloaks and costumes walked in a parade carrying gigantic crosses. They walked around in a fenced off area to music while the crowd watched. There were people of all ages and ethnicities walking through the pain of carrying the heavy cross in the heat. We realizeed that this was also connected with the St. John holiday that our host was explaining to us the night before. We walked back to the house and Tyson ran out to get some pasta and sauce for dinner. He cooked while I organized life a little on the computor. The dishwasher is broken in our apartment but we cannot find any friend to stop by and take a look at it so we will have to call in a professional to rip us off for a small problem. We are also working on some other planning for the trip and work back home.
We ate dinner while watching an extremely long movie called `2012` and then we slept. Tyson had to keep the window open for fresh air which caused me to be eaten alive by mossies all night. I woke up to soak myself in OFF and Afterbite several times. In the morning we had to get up early to pack the last of our things and catch our train to Milano. Our train left at nine am and we managed to make it a bit ahead of time. The train took nearly two hours and it was a comfortable ride. We ate breakfast and blogged until we reached our destination.
We had a three hour layover in Milano with several things to do during that time. With all of our baggage in tow, we ran to return a couple of things that we had bought when we were in Milano the last time but we no longer needed. First we exchanged some batteries we had bought for the old camera for new a luggage lock because the old one stopped working. Next we continued on to return other batteries we had bought from a bigger grocery store. We had stocked up because the old camera was going through batteries like crazy but we did not need the extra weight of them anymore. With a little convincing, they took them back. Then we went to a Camera shop where we had seen a camera we liked but it had been sold during our week away so we bought a different one. It is a Samsung and it should do us just fine for the next month or so while we are away. We stopped at the Duomo where it was still busy as ever. We checked out the camera to make sure everything was in order and all the parts were present which they were. We took some photos and rested for a short time before strapping on the bags again and speed walking to China town. Here we bought a memory card for the camera and then half walked and half ran back to the train station with only two minutes to spare before the train took off towards Venice. In total we walked over twenty kilometers in the three hours and completed everything we intended to do. By the time we got to the train however, I was about to collapse, the weather had been very hot outside and I was wearing flip flops so I was drained and in pain. As soon as we sat down both of us guzzled down several bottles of water, ate four oranges, two muffins, and a cup of pudding. After updating the blog we slept until our destination.
After unsuccessful attempts at finding a suitable couchsurfing host in Venice, we managed to book a hostel just outside the island. It was supposed to be a fifteen minute bus ride outside of the city with a pool, fitness center and wifi so we were happy. We had read some horrible reviews on the place but the price was right so we decided to give it a chance. The directions to the bus were great, the ride was fifteen minutes as promised by the hostel website, then we walked about ten minutes and we were there. It was the greatest place! It was very clean with a very huge pool and two large whirlpools. It was packed with people and we got our own bungalow for the same price as a tent. The staff were friendly, the wifi worked (most of the time), the showers had hot water and were clean so there was no more that we could ask for. We were very confused by the bad reviews online because we had a great time at this place. The first night we took much needed showers and then tried to organize our bags. We threw several kilograms of stuff away, made a maybe pile and packed everything we had to keep. Our flight with Ryan Air is in a few days and we are only allowed (strictly) ten kilograms each of luggage so we are a bit nervous about how much stuff we have at the moment. After hours of going through our stuff we slept.
The next mornng we got up at a decent hour and head out to Venice. We had to run several hundred meters to catch the bus while everyone watched and some cheered us on. We caught the bus but the driver charged us double the fare because we did not know that we had to pre-purchase tickets at newspaper stands outside and on the bus we had to pay an extra fee. So we were a bit upset about this but we tried not to let it ruin our day.
Venice is, as everyone may tell you, the most unique city ever. It is entirely on water and the only mode of transportation is by boat or by foot. There are no cars or busses and it is beautiful. It is by far one of the most touristy places we have ever been and there is rarely a time when no one else is around with bags of shpping and melting gelato cones but we had a lot of fun. We wandered to places we had no idea about all day. There were gigantic churches such as the one of St. Mark's. We waited in line for about thirty minutes to see the inside of that one but you have to pay for most parts and there is a large souvenier shop at the end which takes away from the whole spiritual aspect of it all. Inside was lovely though with a great deal of detail and gothic beauty. Throughout the city, there were lots of beggars kneeling on the ground or following people around for money. There were many shopping and sight seeing and the people watching was great. The prices are very high of course with one 300ml cup of juice costing the equivalent of $4.50. We bought a tons of groceries including chocolate croisssants, milk chocolate bars, potato chips, ham, bread, oranges, cheese and pop for dinner and head back to our hostel around six pm. We got into our swim suits and layed by the pool until it closed at eight pm.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
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