Ahh.. Genova

It has been a wonderful, fulfilling journey so far.  Each location that we have visited has been new and exciting in its own way, and Genova is keeping up the tradition.

Monday morning started with everyone checking out of our home at the Best Western Luxor in Turin. We

Rest stop with hills in background

then headed south for about a two hour drive to Genova.  For the first 80 minutes or so, we were in the plains... much like the area around Alessandria.  Lots of farming and agriculture.  Then we entered the hills that form the northern border of the Liguria region that we were heading into.  Locals call these hills the Alpini, or "small Alps".  I would describe them as the mountains of West Virginia.  Not mountains like the Rockies (or the Alps!) but definitely something I wouldn't want to cross with horse and buggy.  After a brief rest stop and  more driving through hills, several tunnels, and some impressive bridges we arrived on the outskirts of Genova.

Genova is squished into a very small area between the sea and the hills.  The difficulty of building on the hillside has caused the city to extend very far (10-20km or so) along the coast, but not very far inland.  There are about 700,000 inhabitants.  And 150,000 scooters; but more on that later.  Well...  why wait?  The scooters here make driving an experience unlike anywhere else I've ever seen.  They are considered to be the savior of the city (because they are small and don't take up the space that a car does) but they make every excursion an experience to be talked about, and video of a typical drive would make wonderful "chase" footage for your average action movie.  Add to this the hills and tiny streets (yet extremely curvy), this city holds the record, in my book, of the most intense driving experience yet.  Locals tell us, however, that this is nothing compared to driving in southern Italy.

Our van in the area around the Marcelline

Anyway, back to the story...  We made to our home for the week at the hotel Soggiorno Suore Marcelline and then walked down the hill to the seaside to find a place to eat.  A quick panini lunch followed,

and then we were off to an incredibly beautiful and perfect Italian scene

to wait to meet up with our Rotary contact for the week, Gian Michele Gancia.  We had coffee and drinks while we discussed our schedule for the week.

After this, we headed back to the Marcelline and prepared for a pizza dinner with one of the three rotaract clubs in the area.  This was a great evening.

 The rotaract members were very friendly and provided for a lot of interesting conversation.  In addition, there was live singing for the evening,

and everyone had a great time.  All in all, a wonderful first day in Genova!

The next day, I had a vocational visit to the Italy Institute of Technology.  The rest of the team visited a confectionery factory.  Following this, we all met together at the Hotel Bristol Palace for a lunch meeting with

RC Genova.  It was an interesting meeting.  There was a presentation on the history and current status of a garden park near Genova.  The presentation was given in Italian, but helpful translators at our tables, as well as nice pictures on the slides made it quite nice.

Following this, our helpful Rotarian friend Stefania took us on a brief walking tour of the city as we made our way down to the Genova aquarium.   We stopped at a church along the way and took a few pictures.   Down at the waterfront, we met our guide Mariam, who was incredibly knowledgeable about all-things-aquatic and we had a great time visiting the fishes and other marine wildlife.

After leaving the aquarium, we walked around the port area for a while and then we had an hour or so of free time.  I walked around more and took some pictures.

The team had dinner at a restaurant near the waterfront and then we headed back to the Marcelline for a much needed night of sleep.