Stuzzichini…

.. are the little nibblies that come with a fancy drink

I left the bar on Sunday night before finishing what I hoped to do. I was wrong – the people were not cheering a local team , they were gathering for the next match which really was a local team – Genova ( 30 km west) . When the tables around me started to be rearranged and the preparatory chanting started I left. I tried to watch the match in my room, but it must have only been on pay TV. I could see a channel that featured 2 commentators watching the game and ‘calling ‘ the action – but you only saw them . This is Italian TV, so one of them was a female with plenty of cleavage. I resorted to weightlifting – some international competition in Chang Mai Thailand, but the commentators were English and quite informative.

Yesterday I went to Camogli – a little fishing village not far from here. I pottered around, took lots of photos of fishing boats ( I really must do a photography course – I have several OK photos and a few almost good ones) , had an espresso and caught the train back. There is an old church up on one of the surrounding hills behind Rapallo with a cable car up to it and also a track. I had read several descriptions of the track ranging from an easy 1 hour to moderate 1 3/4 hour walk. The trouble was finding the start. The map was vague. I spent ¼ hour winding my way up the steep hill to where the road ended in 3 front yards protected by 3 large, locked gates. I went down and stopped to ask 2 little old ladies. After a while talking about one’s sister in Australia, they pointed out the correct path – but I still had to go down more before I could start going up again. The path meandered up and up and up. It was weird, at one point looking down on a 6 lane autostrada through an olive grove. Half way ( making the large assumption that the map was to scale) up, an hour or so after I started ( including the false start, but I was moving fairly quickly), I thought I would be sensible and return.

Today I went to Genoa. Founded in the 4th century BC, it was a major power in the 14th to 17th century. It declined but in the last 10 years or so its got its act together. It reminds me of Naples – windy, narrow streets with lots of character ( and characters, particularly at night I gather) . I wandered around the 2 main art galleries. This was a bit of a challenge – the list of paintings in rooms that came with the audio guide did not always match the map that my entry gave me and sometimes neither matched the order that the guides tried to steer you in. Both ‘galleries’ were in old restored Palazzos – lots of smallish rooms, but interesting architecture. I then wandered up and down and in and out of interesting streets looking at interesting buildings, found somewhere to eat and then wandered around the old port area.

Tomorrow I go to Varenna.