Matt and Janelle in Europe

Genoa was much different than the other cities that we've been to so far. Today was spent exploring the city since we didn't have any particular sites that we felt compelled to see; instead, we wanted to just get a feel for the city as a whole rather than hitting particular monuments. We found Genoa to be very diverse and struggled to find a U.S. city to compare it to.

We woke up and headed toward the main train station to reserve our seats on the train to Rome (the faster, long-distance trains in Italy require seat reservations in addition to the Eurail pass). We walked near the sea, but as Genoa's very much a port city, there weren't any good or scenic views. On the way to the station, we stopped at the same cafe as yesterday because we knew it had an internet connection and because we enjoyed our food and drinks from the day before. We ended up getting two sandwiches of local meats and cheeses and more cups of coffee. We ended up chatting a bit with the cafe manager and some other locals, a task that proved especially hard in Genoa, where fewer people seemed to speak English; when we mentioned we were from California, they knew that Arnold Schwarzenegger had been "presidente" of the state. While at the cafe, we also booked an official bed and breakfast in Rome for the weekend. After reserving our train seats at the train station, it was comforting to know we had the next couple of nights planned out.

We left the train station and headed back to the east, in the direction of our room. We walked up some steeps stairs to Castelletto Spianata, which offered a great view of parts of Genoa. Genoa is a very hilly coastal city (many tourist pamphlets referred to it as a "vertical city"), so much of the city was still above us. But we descended and walked along Via Garibaldi, a historic street whose buildings once housed Genovese nobility who competed to have the most lavish residence on the street.

Later, we headed up several random stairs and streets where we saw a number of churches, public gardens, and nice views of the city from even higher up than before. Without any specific sight-seeing goals, we wandered back down and stopped in Piazza Ferrari (there was also a nearby Piazza Corvetto, which we thought was a little funny), then continued on down Corso Buenos Ayres toward our hotel.

Near our hotel, we found a pizzeria that had a great menu and enthusiastic waiters. We ordered a salame pizza and gnocchi con pesto (pesto, along with focaccia, originated in Genoa). Being in Italy, wine was very inexpensive -- a quarter liter (or about a third of a standard wine bottle) for just two euros -- so we each got some with our dinner. When we went to the counter to pay, the cashier kindly rounded up our change to the nearest ten euro, saving us a few euros!

After dinner, we returned to our room where we flipped through channels (finding one of the Fast and Furious movies in English, and more Italian soccer) and went to sleep.