Genova, Italy

Hello Peeps!!! Ok, so after yesterday's freak out, internally I've settled down again (I feel a bit like a travel junkie: up once second, then down another). And things today could not have been more different than yesterday. WHAT AN AMAZING DAY!!!! Honestly, I think I prefer Genova over Rome. I know what you're thinking: "Really! But Rome is, well, Rome!" And that's true, but what I found when I was there, was that it was much easier to appreciate some of things (like the Santa Maria Maggiore) more than the Sistine Chapel, because they aren't so crowed. I've also been e-mailing mom, and at one point she asked me about the difference in food. Honestly, in Rome, I couldn't find any of what you'd call 'authentic' Italian food. I think the city is so commercialized by tourism, that they've made it so the food tastes much like American or British food.

Here in Genova, me and Rachel (one of my bunk mates who's from Australia) decided to explore the city together today and it was beautiful. The culture here is much more what I expected to see in Rome. I was nervous about coming here because my travel book hardly made a blip about it, but I'd honestly recommend it to anyone who wants authentic Italiano.
We took our bus down from our hostel (which sits right atop the city), into the center of the city and walked without even consulting a map. It was so nice. The smell in the city is floral. There always seems to be an undertone of it no matter where you go (and we went past some not great smelling establishments), and the smell of baking break and cooking food wafted out of every restaurant door and it completely finished off the image of Italy so perfectly. We passed a ton of markets today and actually bought some freshly picked strawberries which were so delicious. There is nothing like fresh fruit. We also started the day with an espresso and a croissant. We sat outside and ate and I felt very European.

We sort of went without any real purpose other than to see what we could find (with a constant quest in the back of our heads). Ok, so something that never occurred to me, was to pack a towel. All my research, never once, anywhere, did it say to bring your own towel to the hostels. Do you know how hard it is to take a shower in a strange place, with strangers, and not have a towel? Not fun. Even harder: finding a towel. My second thing, was a watch and/or alarm clock. Part of my paranoia has been getting up on time to check out or catch a train. Amazingly today, by chance, we found both!

After several hours of walking we finally decided it was time for lunch. We ended up going into this little shop that had, I guess you could call them pre-made pizzas, but not really. They were assembled, but not heated (and bonus, all the bread was all baked there and I'm guessing the fresh ingredients came from neighboring shops). I wasn't positive what I was getting, but it looked like like a mini pizza with ham and salomi with a white sauce on a nice thick crust. I ordered it, the lady heated it, folded it in half, wrapped it and gave it to me. I can't even begin to describe how fantastic it was!! I didn't get a picture of it because we were both starving and had them gone in about 2 minutes. We almost went back for another! If we hadn't been so full, we would have.

A couple times throughout our day we went down some back alleys and streets that weren't exactly great (in the one, I felt like I was in the opening of Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd" going past a bunch of prostitutes -- no lie, at 10 in the morning. They were lining several back streets. We got out of there). Although, I did want a picture of some of them. I thought it would've been cool, but Rachel pulled me back saying we didn't want trouble. Sadly, she was right.

We ended up taking a spur of the moment tour of a photo gallery that had pictures of immigrants in Europe all the way from 1950 to now -- actually very moving. I'm glad we went in. Then later we saw St. Lorenzo's Cathedral (for those of you who don't know the story of St. Lorenzo's murder, I've found out, recently, that this is true: I can't remember why they executed him, but they put him on a 'spigit' just up high enough so he would be in pain, but not close enough to the fire below that he'd die. After 8 hours, he told his torturers he was cooked at that side and needed to be flipped. He did it on purpose knowing the more direct exposure to his organs would kill him. He died shortly after they turned him over).

Today was so great. Honestly, I think some of it was having someone to actually talk with for the day and to sort of work things out with. A couple times we weren't sure where we were and couldn't find it on the map, but it didn't freak me out all which was nice to be free of that feeling for awhile. We actually found a little super market and bought some fresh rolls and jam and apples: I'm going to go out and eat one for supper here shortly, and then we're saving the rest for tomorrow. Me and Rachel are sticking together for one more day and heading to Cinque Terre. We couldn't find anywhere open to sleep, so we're coming back to Genova after doing the walking of all 5 cities.

And a pleasantly unexpected bonus: I've found someone who's heading to Paris, by train also, on Monday. I'm not going alone. Her name is Charlotte and she's had almost the same experiences with trains as me, so we're both so happy to be going with someone. It's such a relief to know I'm not doing it alone.

Missing you all!! Thanks again for the fabulous support!!!