Genoa + Columbus's House

First of all, I would never recommend visiting Genoa on a Sunday. Almost nothing was open except really downtown. And who wants to stay downtown all day? 

We hopped aboard another sightseeing bus and zipped around the city to see the major sites. That day was soooo muggy and not very sunny so I felt like I should be cold, but really I was sweating.

I took most of my photos from the bus because it's a much better vantage point than on foot, hence all the nifty angles.

We hopped off the bus at the Piazza De Ferrari (which was really beautiful and in the picture below) and gallivanted off to see Columbus's house nearby. 

It's a pretty small house, as you can see. There used to be other houses just like it connected on either side of it all up and down the street. There's not much inside except a little bit of original flooring underneath some plexiglas, but we weren't allowed to take pictures anyway. It was still fun to see it and now we can say we have been inside Columbus's home. The tickets for the house also come with tickets to go up in the medieval gates to the city for an extra euro or something really cheap. The buildings in this part of Genoa were really pretty!

We climbed up the Porta Soprana aka the gates of Genoa to see the lovely view. Porta Soprana was built around 1155 and has two different towers that you can climb. We were literally the only people there. We looked down on all the buildings around us and into the small rooftop terraces full of lovely flowers and greenery. It made me really want a rooftop terrace. Isn't terrace a lovely word?

Going through these pictures has really made me appreciate just how tan I was by the end of this cruise (and how pasty I am now). Look at my legs! And I was using SPF 45! I never just tan. I burn. I am the kind of person who gets burned slightly (or so I think) and people gasp when they see me. I have that kind of skin.

This was the part of Genoa I wanted to see: the stacks of colorful buildings and the rolling hills. We tried to take a bus up to a famous cemetery, but we could not figure out the bus schedule no matter how hard we looked at it. It was printed out on a piece of 8.5x11 paper and taped to the bus stop. And we never saw any buses stop the entire day! I'm telling you, don't go to Genoa on a Sunday unless you are prepared to walk. Or take a taxi. We walked for a while along the river and when we decided we had gone far enough, we tried to find a taxi. There were none to be found. Isn't that how it always works? Seriously, go to Genoa on a weekday.I will say this though, we probably passed like five people the entire time we were walking, so that is a bonus. Genoa is not very crowded on a Sunday.

It got very stormy all of a sudden and we had to hide in the train station for a while. While pretending to study train schedules, we encountered a very angry (and possibly drunk) Italian man who wouldn't stop screaming at the random passersby. A train-station woman made him leave eventually, but it was an entertaining break from all the walking.

Also, here we are on the night that we sailed past the two islands of Corsica and Sardinia. I'm pretty sure that's Corsica in the background.

So I'd like to end by saying that this post has been sitting half-finished in my drafts folder for more than a month! I've been guiltily thinking about it almost every day and finally decided that today was the day I finally finished that sucker! I've just been so exhausted. Nearly four weeks ago, I finally put on my big girl panties and landed myself not one, but TWO new jobs. Then I started taking a calculus class down at the local community college (I don't want to talk about it. ugh, math). So I guess you could say I've been pretty busy lately.

As a non-member of the workforce for the last three-ish years, I have had a large abundance of free time to blog and edit photos and just generally hang out and have a good time (and also do laundry and develop my homemaking skills, obviously. Thanks, for the three years off, Forrest!). 

No longer! I am now an employed woman with a schedule!

I'm sorry, poor neglected blog, I'll try not to go another four weeks without updating you. I missed you!

P.S. There is one last stop on this trip: Marseilles, France!

P.P.S. Barcelona Part 1 and 2, Palma de Mallorca, Valencia, and Rome

Rome

Months and months ago, I went through all of my Rome pictures and selected the ones I liked best. These photos have been sitting (bookmarked) for a very long time.

No longer!

I feel a little guilty like maybe these photos think I don't love them anymore. 

So here are a bunch of pictures mostly of the Colosseum (..from June 2013. Eep.)

So the thing about Rome in late June is.. it's really hot with 1000% humidity. Especially when by comparison, I have been living in places my entire life where the high in the summer is 85 with a light breeze. HOT. So if we look hot, tired, and overall pretty grumpy in these pictures, it's really because we are. 

We had a tour of the Colosseum at about 1:00 (underground, thank goodness) so we headed to the Roman forum first thing. Our cruise ship was docked on the coast in Civitvecchia which was an hour train ride away, so I think we ended up in Rome at about 10:00.

It's still really hot in Rome at 10.

We had been to Rome the year before and had already toured the Forum. But the ticket was included with the Colosseum tour and it's right across the street, so we figured why not? I'm glad we did because different parts of the forum were open this time (and some of the parts we saw last time were closed). Seeing anything in Rome is difficult when there are only about 10 hours scheduled in your cruise stop, so I was very glad we had already been and were accustomed to the train system, etc. (validate your train ticket, people!). 

After we sweated our way around the Forum (seriously, the next time we go to Italy, we're going in the fall. Holy humidity, batman!), we headed up the street to find some lunch. We ordered a pizza for five euro and found some shady steps to sit and enjoy our favorite part of Italian culture. Foooood.

Then, off to the Colosseum!

We took the special underground tour of the Colosseum which included access to the lower level tunnels, the rebuilt main floor, and the third level on the very top. A normal ticket only includes the first and second floors. I was somehow under the impression that we were going to be able to walk through the uncovered tunnels in the middle, but I was sorely disappointed. I kept waiting and waiting for the guide to take the ropes down, but she never did. It was still cool though! The tunnels we did get to walk through were very dark. The whole time we were down there, I couldn't help but think how black (and scary!) it would have been when the whole bottom level was covered up and there were no electric lights or big open spaces.

 

All of those people up there were wondering how did they get down there and why are those people so special? I know because that's what I was thinking when we did our ordinary tour the first time.

 

 

The top level was breezy and had wonderful views of the Forum and an even better view of the entire Colosseum. If you ever get a chance to visit Rome, I would definitely recommend booking the more extensive tour. It's not much more than a normal ticket and you get to feel like a VIP going up blocked staircases and things.

P.S. Fun fact: do you see all those holes in the upper right corner? Those are the most apparent ones in this photo, but they're actually all over the entire Colosseum. Those are the spaces left over from where people stole building material and metals. I know.

After our Colosseum adventure, we headed on over to the Appian Way which is one of the oldest roads in Rome. It took us a while to find the part where the traffic-y part ended and the ancient part started, but we had a nice little stroll to end our afternoon.

Here are some things we saw along the road!

 

I would not recommend traversing the Appian Way on foot unless you have an entire day to spare. It's a long walk and the scenery is kind of spread out. There were a lot of people who were much smarter than us on bikes. Next time.

So, once we were too exhausted to continue on, we found a taxi to take us back to the city. And then back on the train we went to the port.. where we bought ourselves another pizza.

Next stop: Genoa!

P.S. to see more pictures from this adventure:

Valencia

Palma de Mallorca

Barcelona 1and 2