We arrived in Milan around 7-am, after the night train from Munich. We were surprisingly refreshed even though we had been awakened periodically through the night as the train made stops. I was anxious to try out the Italian cappuccinos and so we left the Milan train station in search of a bakery. Once outside, we quickly realized that Milan was the industrial city we had heard about and there were not a million little bakeries outside of the station awaiting our business. In fact, there were none, only a McDonalds in the distance. We walked back into the train station in anticipation of giving our business to one of the places we had seen near the trains.
Once inside my first pseudo-Italian cafe, I tried to watch some other people, the German girls who had been in our car in fact, to figure out the system of how to order, pay and receive my food. Based on a recommendation from Claudia’s friends in Germany who had lived in Italy for awhile, I made sure to drink my cappuccino at the counter, standing up. Apparently, only tourists sit and drink. My cream-filled croissant and cappuccino were all that I had imagined they would be and I was happily content.
We caught the next train to Genoa which was quite full. Upon arriving in Genoa, we bought a map of the area and Italian dictionary, then made our way to the taxi line. We showed our address to the taxi cab driver and he pointed at our hotel in the distance and said that we could walk there. Wow, he was more honest than the cab drivers in Cancun who had taken us to the cleaners with a shorter distance. We were impressed.
After checking into the hotel, we took the ancient elevator (that was very cool..you know those kind where you have to manually slide the door shut) and moved into our room. After showering we left the hotel to explore the city. One of the first sentences out of Andy’s mouth was, “Oh no, wine shop, shoe shop and gelato all next to the hotel.” Once again, I was in heaven.
A few other memorable quotes from Andy include “nice knockers” referring to the elaborate knock-handles on the front-doors of many buildings, “it must have been a nice building competition” referring to the many beautiful buildings around the city, “a wiener dog just got off the bus” which was a fact and “I need some pink pants” referring to the European fashion. Everything was pretty much closed since it was Sunday, so the town was relatively quiet. We spent the time walking around, stopping at the occasional cafe and then admiring all of the sailboats down on the waterfront. We finished off the day with dinner at Lupo’s, a restaurant recommended by the hotel. After dinner there was a Flavor Flav marathon on MTV that we couldn’t turn away from as it was such a guilty pleasure to watch real, live trashy American TV once again.
The next day, we hiked to the top of the city, which was not an easy feat. The city of Genoa is built on a hill and the houses seem to be built right on top of one another all of the way to the top of a mini-mountain. It took us at least 45 minutes of winding our way on hidden paths only discovered by watching where the locals walk. At the top of the city, we found a forest and a castle wall that seemed to surround a large area. The other amazing discovery was other runners! After the run, we ate breakfast at a local bakery. Once again the cappuccino was oh so good. Luckily the portions of all of their food was quite small, at least by American standards, so our run wasn’t a complete waste even after another croissant.
After showering, we walked back to the water front to catch the 12:30 city tour in the bus with the convertible top. A few facts about Genoa that we learned on the tour include:
- Genoa was founded in the 7th century BC
- The lack of flat land caused the Ligurian (the region) architecture to fit to the land
- By the end of the 19th century, Genoa was rich with a few ruling noble families
- Genoa is the home of Christopher Columbus
- In 1821, Genoa became a part of Sardinia
- There were more facts but my notes are not that good, sorry…check out wikipedia
After the city tour, we went back to the water front and had lunch on a small street with a lot of foot traffic and excellent people watching. Andy went to the local running store that opened at 3-pm (rough) to find out some information on the Giro the next day, but the worker was a grump and of no help. We then went back to a nice street we had seen on the city tour and did a bit of shopping as the shops were too nice to resist. After I had finished trying on some clothes at one particular shop, I walked out of the dressing room to find a dog in the dressing room next to me. Dogs really are allowed everywhere in Germany and Italy. Andy and I discussed what it would be like if our dogs were in a clothing store and started laughing from the visual image. Needless to say, European dogs are better behaved that most American dogs, at least ours… We finished the day off with dinner at the same Italian restaurant as the day before because Andy (and I) really loved the seafood ravioli!
Our last day in Genoa was spent with a focus on exercise. Good thing with all of the rich pastries and pasta! We took the vertical tram that goes to the top of the city and ran a loop that the runners we had seen earlier were running on. My allergies got really bad and once I started rubbing my eyes on the way down the tram, I seriously felt like they, especially my right one, was going to swell shut. After we were back at the hotel, we packed up and I kept checking the mirror to make sure I didn’t have a black eye because it was so swollen. I eventually realized there was an eyelash causing the irritation. The whole time, Andy thought I was completely over-reacting but I was honestly a little freaked.
After checking out, we took a cab down to a street called “Corso Italia” where the Giro was supposed to pass through. While we waited for the Giro (bicycle race through Italy…Italy’s version of the Tour de France), we ate at a nice restaurant on the beach where the owner served us amazing antipasto with octopus and other fish. The beach area was just opening for the season, so there were not too many people down there.
After much anticipation, the vans that sell the Giro garb quickly drove through where we were waiting for the race and we each bought a pink bag with some Giro stuff. (the leader of the Giro wears a pink jersey “maglia rosa” like the leader of the Tour wears a yellow jersey.) About 15 minutes later, the current breakaway on the race sped through the 40 km to go banner where we were standing, then a couple of minutes later, the pelaton came through. For spectators of the race, the moment that the race passed was their “big moment” yet for the race participants, it was just any ole time on their bikes. Even though it all happened SO fast, it was still thrilling to be there and experience the race live (I am a huge cycling fan if you haven’t figured it out by now) and we definitely want to go back and see some stages of the Tour one day!
We walked to a cafe to catch the end of the stage on a TV with very bad reception. It was a gnarly mountain stage with a 12% grade at the finish. They were going so slow, it would have been fun to see, but we were not able to figure out a good way to get in the mountains for viewing. The stage (#10) winner was Leonardo Piepoli with a time of 6 hours, 19 minutes and 07 seconds! Wow, imagine spending that much time in the saddle to finish on that steep of a hill. It was truly impressive and the lead changed numerous times in the last 10-km.
What an experience to see the Giro! After the race, we took the train to Rapallo, Italy.
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