Genoa, Italy 28-29 April 2014

After meeting our hosts Stephania and Pino, at B&BLercari, and settling into the two B&B rooms of their apartment, we were very quickly put at ease.  Communicating via broken forms of each others’ languages, along with Google translate, we quickly established a rapport.  After three nights in Venice sleeping above a nightclub, with windows that only partially obscured morning light, we had some great sleeps in Genoa with comfortable beds and solid shutters.  In addition, each morning we had a great start to the day with a breakfast table laden with cereal and fresh fruit, and local specialities and products including walnuts, focaccia, and home-made biscuits and chocolate cake!

Genoa is a city nestled into the steep mountain-sides on the edge of a port. (Elle noticed that there are not a lot of high-heel shod feet to be seen, and for good reason; she wore sneakers rather than boots on day 2.) 

On our first day, under grey clouds and drizzle , we headed towards the port area, taking in the Palazzo Ducale and San Lorenzo Cathedral (with great lions out front) on the way. 

Once at the waterfront we opted for an indoor activity, and went for the well-regarded Acquario di Genoa.  While we think Melbourne Aquarium is better, the Genoa one is good too, with different features (including dolphin shows and manatees). 

Will found namesake waffles being served at the aquarium, but the children chose to order margarita pizza and chips... again.

Back outside the Acquario, in a typical parents’ moment, we were bemused by how the kids largely ignored an impressive replica Spanish galleon nearby (which was built for a movie), but were fascinated by a school of small fish.  The thought did cross the mind of at least one parent that we could have saved $100 and just let the children hang out in the light rain, leaning over the rail looking down into the water. 

In the afternoon we walked uphill to Via Garibaldi, probably the most famous street in Genoa, which is lined with many palaces built by rich and noble families in the 1500-1600s.  Xavier fell asleep on Andrew’s shoulders, and was then transferred to Elle’s arms, which allowed her to indulge in a (surprisingly rare) coffee break (good cafe latte, great value at 1.50 Euros, although the next day it was 2.50 Euros – they must have thought we were going to take it at the bar the first day) for about an hour. 

Meanwhile, Andrew, Grace and William had plenty of time to take in the street. Grace and William burned off a lot of steam chasing each other around, standing out from the otherwise purposeful Genovian business people, tourists or dog walkers, but thankfully drawing only smiles from the guard at the entrance of the government building a few metres away.

After a long day out and about in cool, wet weather, climbing up and down cobblestoned streets, we were ready for dinner by 6.30pm.  This was one of many occasions where local culture for eating quite late was challenging for a family with quite little children.  We had a target dinner venue, La Barcaccia, a restaurant recommended by Stephania, quite high above the city at a location called Spianata di Castelletto, with great views over the city, and an easy downhill walk back to the B&B.  She had told us it didn’t open until 7pm, but we were still disconcerted when we arrived there at 6.45pm to find no signs of life.  At about five to seven, a man pulled up on a Vespa out the front, and then disappeared inside, firmly shutting the door behind him.  Shortly, after 7, weary, cold and damp – not to mention hungry – Elle tentatively opened the door and stepped inside seeking a table for five.  We were welcomed in, but warned they didn’t start serving until 7.30.  Ultimately this turned out to be perfect for us: we were comfortably seated, ready to order at 7.30, served delicious food quickly, and out of the door again just as the second group of diners were ready to order, before anyone in our party had a chance to embarrass anyone else in our party.  Grace and William preferred Elle’s Minestrone Genovese and Andrew’s pasta with cheese sauce to their own gnocchetti, but ultimately everyone was very happy with the food.

The next morning we started the day by slowly walking down to the port area, via a different series of streets and laneways.  After taking in a few sights near the waterfront we boarded the Trenino Pippo (a small tourist train) for a 45-minute drive around town.  The kids enjoyed the train, and we got to see some new areas of town, but the train engine was very noisy so the audio history tour was significantly compromised.  With too many Peppa Pig episodes behind her, Elle kept thinking of Grandpa Pig’s Gertrude, who “is not a toy train; she is a miniature locomotive”.  Andrew was particularly interested in the preventative maintenance prior to the journey, where a socket set, not unlike his own set at home, was brought out to solve a problem with the wheels of the loco! 

After lunch, we took the kids to what Andrew referred to as “Scienceworks Genoa”, aka La città dei bambini.   The kids enjoyed this, especially the bubble-making equipment and the climbing wall.

Xavier again fell asleep on Andrew’s shoulders, and we revisited Via Garibaldi for a nap/coffee break, before a wander through a small botanical garden, and a funicular railway trip up high over the city.  Unfortunately, views were difficult to get due to buildings and trees, but Andrew jogged to a lookout for a better vantage point, before we took the funicular back down for dinner.  After the success of the previous evening, we returned to La Barcaccia, and had another great experience, with excellent pasta and wine, and welcoming, bilingual service.

The next morning we packed up, said goodbye to Stephania and B&B Lercari, packed the car (including three jars of Stephania’s home-made basil pesto), and started our journey to Uzès.  Before leaving Genoa, however, Andrew wanted to see La Lanterna di Genova (the old lighthouse).  This turned into a GPS-challenging, wife-challenging, task, but eventually Andrew and Grace were able to do so (leaving the less interested in the car), with the assistance of a nearby hotel who allowed us to use their carpark as a starting point.  The lighthouse is very nice but, buried in the new port area with poor access, Andrew now understands why it isn’t promoted much as a key tourist attraction (Elle having guessed earlier).

We enjoyed our time in Genoa, a great city with incredible heritage, which appears to have been somewhat lost against the superstar cities of Italian tourism.

The road trip on which we lean towards Ronald (Venice to Genoa, 27 April 2014)

Having got to Venice, we needed to get back to France (specifically Uzès), via somewhere in Italy to break up the journey, and we settled on Genoa, which we (Andrew and Elle) previously have only passed through or around on the way to or from Tuscany.

But Genoa is in the same (sort-of) (very) general area as Pisa, where neither of us has been before either, and Andrew is not one to be put off by a 90-minute detour.

It was a perfect departure from Venice: one final no. 1 vaporetto trip, disembarking at Piazzale Roma, finding our car still intact and loaded with our excess baggage on the 8th floor of the secure parking lot, and after three sunny days canal-side, a large thunder clap heralded the arrival of rain.

Our so-far reliable Sat-Nav told us we would be in Pisa about 1.30pm, but we didn’t know what the lunch options would be when we arrived, and the troops were restless (hungry restless, as opposed to the more-common bored, irritable, just-plain-annoying restless), so much so that, when we saw the signs advertising McDonalds a few kilometres ahead, we convinced them we should eat lunch there, much to no one’s delight.  We joined the herds, lurked for a table, and ate quickly, then, still hungry, grabbed another cheeseburger and fries for the road that would take us the last few kilometres to the centre of Pisa.

The Sat-Nav assured us that it was just a few kilometres, and sure enough, only seconds after Andrew said he’d be happier when we were no longer in the middle of nowhere, Elle spotted a leaning tower...  the Leaning Tower!  This turned out to be just a few hundred metres the other side of the old city wall from the football stadium, where a Sunday afternoon match was about to start, and all roads seemed to lead to the game. 

Despite this, we quickly “jagged” a free park in an area that looked to be popular with football fans, and quite close to the tower.  The light drizzle reminded us of Melbourne, and street sellers had exchanged whatever it is they sell in dry weather here (fake designer bags?), for umbrellas.

The historic area, Piazza del Duomo or Piazza dei Miracoli (Field/Square of Miracles) is very impressive, being comprised of four key buildings (the Leaning Tower (or the more dramatic, Torre Pendente in Italian), Duomo, Baptistry and Camposanto) surrounded by perfectly-manicured (and fenced-off) grass. 

The Leaning Tower is, of course, the star, and attracts the most attention, primarily in the form of the quintessential photo of a person holding up a hand to arrest its fall.  We had a short visit inside the Duomo, but otherwise stayed outside.  The queue to climb the tower only had about 50 people in it, but it looked quite slow moving, and with our day’s schedule, it was never really an option.

The drive from Pisa to Genoa was notable for the number of marble yards we saw, particularly around Carrara.  On both sides of the road, over a five to ten kilometre stretch, we must have seen 15 to 20 yards, all with large numbers of huge rectangular prism shaped rocks (about three metre cubes).  We thought fondly of our friend Trish, an architect, who would have had a field day looking for good off-cuts from these monsters.

Pretty much on schedule at 6pm, we pulled up in the street opposite the address of our B&B in Genoa, but the phone numbers weren’t working, and despite the name of the B&B being on a small sign on the street, finding it was very difficult.  Eventually we found the name on a door buzzer board, about 30 metres up a steep poorly-surfaced driveway.  First impressions were therefore not great, but as the old saying goes they can be misleading, as the next post will explain.

Venice - 25 and 26 April 2014

The only debate we had over visiting Venice during planning for this trip, was whether the effort involved in ensuring Xavier stayed dry would be worth it.  Fortunately, it was, and he did, although Grace was extremely concerned about his welfare throughout our stay.  Those readers also following Grace’s blog will already be acquainted with her grand vision to “pool fence Venice”.

Venice is one of our favourite cities, and this was our third visit.  However, as with Paris, we are certainly learning that visiting with young kids totally changes the experience.  It becomes difficult if not impossible to:

• queue to visit key attractions;
• do night-time activities;
• be agile and make quick decisions; and
• to delay meals. 

On the other hand, the more enjoyable aspects include:

• slowing down and enjoying different sights;
• answering questions about countries and cities; and
• selecting and sharing gelato.

Prior to leaving Melbourne, Andrew set Grace and William the challenge of finding a Gelato shop in Venice that did not sell limone.  The deal was that for every occasion they could do so, they won a “free” Gelato.  As expected, neither collected a prize, despite diligent observational efforts, however we all had three or four gelati over our two-and-a-half day stay (all of which we, ie Andrew and Elle, paid for, accordingly, Elle remains uncertain about the point of the “free gelati prize").

After piloting our way into Venice, queuing for the recommended high-rise car park, negotiating the crowded vaporetto with children and suitcases, and finding our accommodation, the evening of our arrival day was restricted to exploring the streets near our pensione in the SanPolo/Rialto Mercato area, having a nice dinner in Campo San Polo, and our first gelato (since Torino).

 During our wandering, Elle spotted the following calendar, which we assume contains photos of good-looking priests. 

Our first full day was the 25^th of April, a special day for many reasons: it’s our wedding anniversary and, obviously, Anzac Day, and, as it turned out, Italian Liberation Day and St Mark’s Day Festival in Venice.  There were several special Festival events in Venice.  We were fortunate enough to see one up close when our vaporetto cruise down the GrandCanal to start the day, was halted for five minutes to make way for a traditional gondola race.

After cruising the Grand Canal,

we headed to Murano.

Note: Andrew suggests clicking on the panorama photographs to blow them up for better viewing.

Shortly after disembarking, Xavier was drawn (as we have discovered he is wont to be) to a musician busking (on this occasion, a piano accordion player).  After we gave the busker some coins to thank him for the music, he turned into a balloon-twisting busker, creating a balloon sword for each of the children.  This was our best investment in Venice, as they provided hours of entertainment for the kids before bursting later in the day.

We were particularly taken by the crossed swords photo below, which Andrew captions “when it comes to travel difficulty, X marks the spot!”.

On previous visits to Murano we had enjoyed watching glass sculpture manufacturing demonstrations the area is known for, but our timing and guide books were all off on this occasion.  Despite this, we enjoyed walking the canals, and admiring glass sculptures in countless shop windows.  The photo below was taken for our good friend Kim, an anaesthetist.

After lunch we took a vaporetto and visited the Arsenale, which was driven by Andrew recently reading a history of Venice which discussed the Arsenale's importance to Venetian naval supremacy in 1300-1500.  The 25^th April is one of the few days the Arsenale is open to the public.  Despite some interesting sculpture, the visit was quite boring for the other four members of our touring party, but Andrew enjoyed wandering around and taking photos.

That evening while we struggled to locate a restaurant the pensione recommended, Xavier fell asleep on Andrew’s shoulders (a not uncommon event on this holiday).  Despite this, we had a nice meal in a Piazza we resorted to as Plan B (less than 100 metres from the recommended restaurant).

On the morning of the 26^th we decided to head straight to St Mark's Square and see if visits to the Doge's Palace or St Mark’s Basilica could be achieved.  Upon entry to the square it was immediately clear the answer to both questions was a resounding NO.  The square was clogged with tourists, more than we have ever seen. 

However, we managed to turn this negative into a significant positive, as it prompted us to take a vaporetto to San Giorgio Maggiore (the island directly opposite the square), which we had not been to on previous trips.  As far as we could see, there isn’t much to see or do on the Island, except to visit the lovely Church and take an elevator up its campanile.  Perhaps that is why there were very few people around, which was an immediate huge attraction for us.  Aside from not swimming in a crowd, it also meant no queues.  We went straight to the top of the bell tower and enjoyed the 360 degree views, particularly back to St Mark’s Square.

After leaving San Giorgio Maggiore we caught a vaporetto which went in a different direction to what we were expecting.  However, this too turned out well, as it started out with few passengers. (See photo below - no photo to compare it to, because it is impossible to see the vaporetto for the people on a crowded one.)

We all got seats on the front deck, and we ended up staying aboard for a circumnavigation, seeing areas of Venice we hadn’t previously seen, notably the canal between the island of Giudecca and Dorsoduro, and the cruise ship port area, where we saw three ships, including one monster (3000+ passengers), which no doubt contributed to the St Mark’s Square congestion.  So the morning turned out very well, and we returned to our Pensione for some quiet time, or sleep time for Xavier and Andrew.

After our rest, we again cruised the Grand Canal and returned to St Mark’s Square.  Too late to visit the Doges Palace and the Cathedral, but the Square itself was a lot less crowded, and we enjoyed an hour of wandering, listening to music, and another gelato.  After this we walked home via the Rialto Bridge, stopping for a great dinner along the way, and watching with interest the rising tide breaching the Grand Canal.