26 Agosto 2015. August 26, 2015

Buon Serra-

So, today we strolled Genova — walked through the medieval area (which turns out is very very close to our hotel (so at least the location is good).. the old city is pretty seedy, but probably will get gentrified in the coming years. There’s some renovation going on, but that’s amid lots of buildings in great need of repair, prostitutes roaming around, etc. In any case, it’s one of those webs of narrow streets where you can practically touch the two buildings on either side if you stretch out your arms. Lots of churches buried within the streets and some on the piazzas which are everywhere. It’s very easy to get lost — if you are actually trying to get somewhere. We eventually stopped for a simple lunch in a cute place on one of these very very narrow streets… and then eventually found our way back to the hotel (no easy task).

Then I had a bunch of computer problems which really messed up my day. It’s still not resolved and I don’t have enough computer savvy to figure it out. I seem to have done some kind of reconfiguration — in my effort to fix the problem and now I can’t get it un-reconfigured!.. So, I don’t know when this note will actually reach you and I’m falling behind in the work I have to do while I’m here. So, I’m in a bit of a panic.

At around 6:30 tonight we realized it made sense to return our rental car since we don’t need it between now (Wednesday night) and Friday morning when we fly out of Genova. Well, getting to the airport was stressful (as driving in Italian cities always is)… but we sort of got there and then realized we needed to get gas for the car, so we circled the airport and found a gas station. Easy. But then we headed to the car rental return, which we could see but couldn’t figure out how to approach… so next we knew we were

Went to Le Rune for dinner, which was pretty good… a slight twist on Lingurian food (that’s the region that Genoa is in and it’s a distinctly different cooking style from Piedmont (where Turin is located). But any way you look at it it’s pasta, pasta, pasta.. and fish, fish, fish.. which is fine by me.. my favorite foods. Walked back to Bristol Palace which is much more pleasant at night than by day.

That’s it.. short note today. We get up really early tomorrow and head to the Cinque Terra. We are not hiking like you are supposed to — but that’s a very long and tiring hike.. and people tend to do it over a few days I think. We are taking the train. Total wimps.

Ciao.

Fern