The Oriental Market

November 12, 2007 Monday

A classmate took us to the Oriental Market here in Genova. Finally! A real market, not a little shop that may or may not have what you’re looking for (and even then it may or may not be fresh). It’s in a large building with lots of vendors displaying their wares. There must be 10 butchers, 15 vegetable sellers, a couple spice vendors, nuts, bakeries, pastry shops… Eveything you need for dinner all in one place and with choices! And fresh! (See the pictures).

Portofino (again) and Genova Museums

November 10-11, 2007 Saturday/Sunday

I decided to go back to Portofino today since I didn’t really get a chance to see it last time. So I took the train to Santa Margherita and looked for the boat. Sorry, no boats today. The bus goes to Portofino—right over there. So it did. So I did. I watched on the way over. You’re supposed to be able to walk the 3 miles from Portofino to Santa Margherita, but about halfway between the two, the sidewalk/path from S. Margherita stops and you have to walk in the road, which is just a tad narrow. In some places, especially around tight bends, the bus honked its horn to warn on coming traffic we were coming through. And I saw several walkers jumping out of the way of cars on the road.

Portofino isn’t much bigger than what I saw from the docks last time. There are the colorful houses right along the coast and the villas up in the hills. There are a few more houses further back, but not a lot. Via Roma links the main square, where the bus stops, to the water. There are several restaurants/pizzerias along via Roma. I had a great pizza at one of these with a woodburning oven. Good stuff!

After lunch I wandered about some more, but shortly took the bus back toward S. Margherita. At the point where the sidewalk/path started, I got off and walked the rest of the way. I investigated a castle-like building I’d seen on the way out. It turns out that it’s an old fortification, but has been turned into a disco. It sits on a spit of land sticking out into the Mediterranean. The views must be fabulous at night with all the lights of the towns along the coast strung out in view.

I stopped at Seghezzo Fratelli’s for some bread and dinner fixings (by the time I get back the markets in Genova may be closed).

On Sunday, I visited the “must see” museums on the “new street” or Strada Nuova (more commonly known as Via Garibaldi). The Strada Nuova was envisioned as a statement of the wealth and influence of Genova’s merchant families and the city’s power. It was the first wide street (and it’s not all that wide, although compared to the vicoli I’ve described, it’s a veritable boulevard). The frontages along the Strada Nuova were designed by Veronese (the famous painter/architect). These 3 museums were, at one time, the homes of 3 of the city’s main merchantile families. The White Museum (Galleria di Palazzo Biancho and originally home to the Grimaldi family) contains collections of Flemish and Genovese paintings. The Red Museum (Galleria di Palazzo Rosso and originally home to the Brignole-Sale family) contains Baroque frescoes and works by Reni, Guercino, Van Dyck, and Durer. The Palazzo Tursi (originally home to the Doria family) contains Paganini’s violins (both the Guarneri and the Vuillaume), and tapestries, furniture, coins, and ceramics from the Republic of Genova.

These museums are interesting depending on your interests. If you’re a coin collector, the Palazzo Tursi is a must see. At the top of the Palazzo Rosso (6^th floor), there is a viewing platform that gives a marvelous view over Genova. As far as the paintings go, you won’t find anything that’s really fine (or anything you might expect to see in the Louvre, the Met, the Chicago Art Institute, or the Prado). For the most part the art and sculpture is almost all religious. My naïve impression was: lots of Madonnas with and without child, lots of St. John the Baptists with and without head, and lots of St. Francis with and without stigmata (better go and do a google define on that one! I’m really showing my Catholic upbringing here).

Visiting Camogli, San Fruttuoso, Portofino, and Santa Margherita

November 3, 2007 Saturday

Today the agenda includes Camogli, San Fruttuoso (and its abbey), Portofino, and Santa Margherita. I got a late start due to the late night before at the symphony. Slept in and didn’t get to the train station until after noon. This was to be a mistake.

On the trip to the Cinque Terre, I met a couple from Canada who were staying with a local Genvese family (he grew up here). One of the family laid out quite an itinerary for them, among the various trips was a visit to the Portofino peninsula. I copied it down: train from Genova to Camogli, boat to San Fruttuoso, boat to Portofino, boat (or walk) to Santa Margherita. Based on this sketch, I looked up the train schedule to Camogli and from Santa Margherita. Not a problem—service every 30-60 minutes until about 11pm.

Leaving Genova at 12:30 or so, I decided it would be best to wait until I got to Camogli to have lunch. Good decision. Camogli is a beach town. Camogli is named for the wives of sailors (Camogli is a derivative of the Italian word for “wife”) who waited patiently for the return of their husbands from their long sea voyages. Life centers around the boardwalk, which is very long and quite varied. See the photo album.

For those with a prurient interest in beach scenes, if you look closely at the bottom right in one of the pictures, you will see a topless woman with her children. Finding said woman is left as an exercise for the interested reader.

It was nearly 2pm when I finally got to Camogli and the strand-side array of restaurants, caffes, gelateria, etc. But finally I did find a table (see photos). The best part of the experience was the waiter, but that’s another story (or rather, I wish it were another story :-). Anyway, after a leisurely meal, I found the ferry quai and took off to San Fruttuoso.

San Fruttuoso is an exceedingly small place. It is accessible only by boat and by foot. The guidebook says that there is a way to walk to Portofino in 75 minutes. Look at the pictures. The only way out of San Fruttuoso is to climb vertically for longer than I care to contemplate. Maybe thereafter it’s downhill, and maybe it isn’t. I was NOT going to find out.

There is an abbey in San Fruttuoso and not much else. The abbey was quite interesting and was built by the Doria family (you know the ship Andrea Doria? Well that was the name of an admiral who was head of the Doria family with a large palazzo in Genova). Most of them seem to be buried in San Fruttuoso (they built the abbey, so I guess there were a few perqs that came with). I took pictures of some of the explanatory signs along with others of the abbey, so you can follow along (with judicious use of the magnify button). There is one ferry line from Camogli to San Fruttuoso and another to Portofino. There’s about an hour between arrivals and departure, which is just about right to see the abbey and continue on (unless you want to go up into the tower, which might take a bit longer, but which I skipped—having had my fair share of stairs already).

Portofino is mentioned in all the books as the picturesque place to be and be seen. Movie stars and jet setters, colorful houses, etc. The rail line doesn’t go into Portofino—you can get there by boat or by car. It is picturesque. My usual practice when I arrive at a place is to look up the departure schedule, which was fortunate or unfortunate. It turns out that I arrived at 4:50pm and the last boat out was at 5:00pm, leaving no time to see Portofino. In retrospect, I should have ignored the boat schedule. It’s only 3 miles from Portofino to Santa Margherita and I could have taken a taxi or bus. But when you arrive and see the last boat out is in 10 minutes, panic processes only the one possibility.

So after taking only a few pictures from the harbor, I was on to Santa Margherita. I’ll go back before I leave. If I go directly to Santa Margherita and then to Portofino, I can go in an afternoon.

Santa Margherita is a substantial town and I took to it immediately. In one block on two streets I saw more high quality food stores and wine shops that have seen in all of Genova. This is my kind of town. I even found Pear’s soap in one of the markets. Okay, the market was more like Belucci’s in New York, or a Draeger’s in California, but I have not seen Pear’s soap ANYWHERE else in Italy and I HAVE LOOKED (if there’s one thing I like to have from home when I travel is good glycerine-based soap—and Pear’s is it).

I hung around and meandered the streets until it was respectable hour for dinner. Having asked some locals if there was a good trattoria around, and winnowing the suggestions, I ended up at a place called Ristorante Michele. Ristorante Michele is not listed in the Red Guide (here’s another indication that the place is for me: for a smaller city, Santa Margherita has 11 hotels and 7 restaurants listed in the Michelin guide—Genova has 13 and 19, respectively). But at least it was best food I’ve had in Liguria (the region in which the province of Genova--and Genova, it's capital, resides. On the down side, there are bunches and boatloads of real estate agents and (what looks like) a reasonable apartment in Santa Margherita costs almost as much as one in Palo Alto.

After dinner and back on the train to Genova. On the train I met a businessman from Sorrento south of Naples. He was going to Genova Piazza Principe (the same station as I was) was we were both trying to figure out what station we were at each time the train stopped (they don’t bother to announce them on the train and the signs are not always easy to find). We talk about politics (what most Italians seem to want to talk about when they discover you are American). Then we talk about Italy. He waxes poetic about the beauty of the Amalfi coast and Sorrento in particular. The Ligurian coast is certainly beautiful—Camogli, San Fruttuoso, Portofino, Santa Margherita, the Cinque Terre. Maybe I should to south to Amalfi? I don’t know yet what the last 3 weeks of my stay in Italy will bring. But I should decide soon!

Second week of Italian classes and the Genova Symphony

October 29-November 2, 2007 Monday-Friday

The second week of Italian classes have come and gone. We’ve mostly worked on vocabulary. Nothing spectacular. On Friday we worked on food vocabulary (vegetables, fruits, herbs, etc.), and we all went out for lunch to a local hole-in-the-wall trattoria, Maria’s, which is well known locally and was written up in the New York Times.

This brings me to note the relative lack of what I’d call really good restaurants in Genova. Believe me, I’ve tried to find some. The Michelin Red Guide. Local hints and suggestions. All have resulted in what I’d consider decent, passable fare, but nothing that stands out, nothing that made me want to return. At least Maria’s was only 9 euros ($13). Many of the restaurants run 30-40 euros ($45-60), which is too much for “okay” food, especially considering that the wine part is minimal (Italian wine is really inexpensive—you can get 250ml, which is about 2 glasses, for $6-$8). I can’t say I’ve been overwhelmed by the food since I’ve gotten to Italy. Perhaps it’s the regional cuisine that isn’t piquing my fancy. Ligurian food (Genova and its surrounds) is generally based on pastas or gnocchi with pesto (particularly a small twisted pasta called trofie—take a 4 inch long piece of pasta dough rolled into a thin string, fold it back on itself and twist a few times), and seafood (typically of the crustacean or octopus sort). I swear this is the first time I’ve seen octopus carpaccio (raw octopus, sliced thin) and I’d rather not think about it!

It’s easy to come up with food just as good at home using dried pasta and bottled sauces.

On Friday, I booked a ticket for the Genova Symphony. The concert was supposed to start at 8:30pm, but was delayed due to “technical difficulties” until almost 9:00pm. They played a program of Haydn and Strauss. Haydn comprised the first part, Symphony 96 in D maj and Kleine Organmesse #7 with Ricarda Merbeth singing contralto in the Benedicte. Strauss comprised the second part, Vier Lezte Lieder W296 and “Tod und Verklaerung” (op. 24). This was actually a treat. The orchestra is very good and the pieces allowed for several of the principals to play solos, particularly violin, flute, oboe, and horn.

Genova Opera

October 28, 2007 Sunday

I went to the opera to hear Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani. Quite the production. The stage set was pretty heavy handed. No subtlety there--the French and taken over Sicily and, while the governor is not a bad guy, he does rule with a heavy hand. The stage setting has an enormous clenched fist hanging down from above, and I mean enormous. It must be 30 feet tall and 20 wide, sculpted in 3D. It looks like something out of a Soviet era poster, but hanging down in an overture of oppression instead of raised in defiance. The protagonist is a duchess (coloratura soprano with a beautiful voice and not a bad figure named Sondra Radvanovsky) who is in love with a leader of the Sicilian resistance. This lead, a tenor of course, must have been no more than 5 feet tall and 5 feet around—not someone who would inspire resistance, let alone a love interest! But a huge tenor voice. It was almost comical to see them sing love duets--she was head and shoulders above him and couldn't get close enough to try to hug him. Even the young Italian couple sitting next to me (with whom I struck up a conversation) were amused.

Overall a good production, but the staging and choreography was very weak. The production lasted 4 hours.

This being Sunday, there are very few restaurants open, so it’s cook at home time.

Visiting the Cinque Terre

October 27, 2007 Saturday

It had been raining off and on for most of the past 3-4 days. Saturday was supposed to be partly cloudy and Sunday was supposed to be sunny and warm. As usual, the meteorologists were wrong. Saturday was beautiful—sunny, warm, and only slightly breezy. Today a classmate and I were to go to the Cinque Terre.

The Cinque Terre (Five Lands), are five fishing villages poised on rocky slopes over the Mediterranean (www.my-cinque-terre.com). For centuries, they were interconnected by hiking paths and boats (they have been growing wine grapes, olives, lemons, and other produce since time immemorial). And the only way into or out of them was by boat until 1870 when the first rail line connected Vernazza with Rome and Torino (thereafter the other villages were slowly connected to the rail line). Much later, the towns were slowly connected to the modern road system, although the road that connects the towns meanders through the hills, following contours, rather than boring through tunnels as the trains do.

In the past decade or so, the Cinque Terre have been designated an Italian National Park and a UNESCO Heritage site. This provides some protection from development and discourages the more egregious activities that frequent tourist areas (like lots of advertising, etc.).

The names of the 5 villages are (from south to north): Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterosso al Mare. Vidir, my classmate, and I took the train from Genova to Riomaggiore and walked to Vernazze. The entire hiking path interconnecting the 5 villages is 12 miles long. The path from Riomaggiore to Manarola is called the Via dell’Amore, or Path of Love (built in 1920s). This is an easy walk of about 30 minutes, well-paved and level. It makes an easy warm-up for later. Riomaggiore is where the National Park station is located for the Cinque Terre and has two rows of houses and lots of seafood restaurants. The Via dell’Amore is right on the coast and has wonderful views of the villages at both ends and the Mediterranean (see the picture album). Manarola is a bit larger than Riomaggiore, but not by much. We continued the walk.

Once you’re north of Manarola and off the Via dell’Amore, the path gets a bit more rugged. The paving stops in favor of beaten dirt with rocks reinforcing the edges. It also begins to rise, with rock-edged steps of uneven height and depth making the effort more of hike or trek than a walk. You definitely don’t want to do this in dress shoes—you need at least tennis shoes here (preferably waterproof if it’s rained recently, which it had). This section of the path also begins the area where you see some of the famous terraces. These terraces are supported by stone walls, muretti, of about 4-5 feet in height. These muretti have been built over the past 1000 years. The stones were carried by hand up the slopes to buttress the terraces to keep the soil from washing away. Some of the grape vines and olive trees on these terraces could only be harvested by lowering men on ropes (these days, modern technology has solved the problem—they use miniature railroad engines and cars to get to these remote terraces). It’s commonly said that if you put all the muretti end-to-end, their length would exceed that of the Great Wall of China.

Anyway, it’s an impressive sight to see all these terraces following the contours and covered with vines and trees (see photo album). And the sights from the high trail are magnificent.

This leg of the hike, from Manarola to Corniglia, is a bit strenuous and took about an hour. If you can make it up 4 flights of stairs a couple times a day, this leg is not hard (not easy, either). Especially the end. Just when you think you’ve climbed all the stairs to Corniglia, you are faced with a switchback of stairs. 382 of them to be exact, at least that’s what the sign says when you get to the top. But what a view!

This is where most people should stop hiking and take the train to the next village. The hike onto Vernazza is strenuous and takes a couple hours, unless you’re in reasonable shape (I’m not and I was huffing and puffing and just putting one foot in front of the other a good part of the way). The trail goes way up and way down and the trail is very rugged (although the changes in height are not sudden, there are a lot of rustic “stairs”, and a lot of unevenness in the trail, even on the relatively level sections. In places the trail is very narrow with no railing between you and a drop of a few hundred feet down a rocky slope. The stairs, if such you call them, are very rough with lots of rocks placed unevenly to keep the trail from eroding. You really should be wearing hiking boots for this section, not tennis shoes.

At one point during the hike on this section, there was a sign “Free Beach” and pointing to a path that was a vertical 500 feet down to the beach. I can only think (hope!) that the sign was a joke (but there was a path that was not overgrown, so someone—or something—must use it)! Another one on the other side of the point added a scrawled: "Nude Swede" to the sign (of course, there was no indication of the gender or age of the Swede). At this point, after huffing and puffing for quite a while, some nutso all dressed up in lycra went running past at full tilt and down some treacherous steps (I found myself wishing he mis-stepped and pitched headlong over the cliff!).

But the worst part of this section is not the effort it takes to climb it. It’s that most of the time there are trees and other vegetation blocking your view on one side and the hill on the other, so there’s little to see most of the time. Not that you have much chance to look anyway, since you have to watch how you place your feet to keep from turning an ankle or stepping into mud. But when the view is there, it is fantastic! Now whether those 2 places where there is a view are worth the 2 hours of strenuous hiking? I think not. But there are those who think otherwise.

Once at Vernazza, the 4^th village, I refused to continue on to the 5th village, which is supposed to be the hardest hike of all. Besides, it was already late in the day by the time we got to Vernazza—we wouldn't have made Monterosso al Mare before sundown. So we got some dinner at a local pizzeria and took the train back to Genova. I was exhausted, but got lots of great photos. It was a good day!

Genova and My first week of classes

October 22-26, 2007 Monday through Friday

My first week of school. Class starts at 10am and ends at 1:30pm (with a 20 minute break from 11:40 to 12:00). There are 3 people in class: Liz from Atlanta, Vidir Sigurdsson from Reykjavik, Iceland, and me. The teacher name is Nazarena, a very stylish, young Italian woman living in Genova. She’s studying French and English.

Liz started classes a week ago, so she’s gone over the material in the first week once already. I’ve picked up some Italian over the years, and had 10 2-hour classes last October near home. Vidir has no Italian at all—zip. He speaks pretty good English, but he’s at a disadvantage since all the explanations are given in English, but he has to make sense out of them in Icelandic. Apparently Icelandic is very close to old Norse (the language the Vikings used). Anyway, he’s struggling.

The first week covered about the same material as the 10 classes I took last October (which I’d mostly forgotten). This included the conjugations for present tense for the verbs “to be” (essere), “to have” (avere), and the regular verb conjugations (of which Italian has 4 ending in –are, -ere, and -ire with 2 variations).

Life in Genova. At first, I was disappointed with Genova, but now, it’s growing on me. The apartment I’m in is in the “centro storico” or historic center of Genova. Genova has the largest medieval city center in Europe. The “streets” I walk between apartment and school have been here since the 13^th century. I say “streets” because many of them are only about 5-6 feet wide and are more alleys than streets. Here they are called “vicoli” (or “vicolo” for one). No cars are allowed in the centro storico during the day and only some vicoli can accommodate cars, even at night. The harbor is about 200 yards away from my front door (although I can’t see it from my apartment or the front door).

This all has certain ramifications. If there are no cars (or trucks) allowed, or even possible in a lot of cases, then what? How do they pick up garbage? Well, it turns out that everyone has to carry their garbage to pick-up points either on the edge of the historic center, or on one of the few wider vicoli that can accommodate a specially constructed narrow garbage truck.

In medieval times, the areas around the port or harbor were not the nicest areas in a town (and often were the worst). This still applies in Genova. There are no more warehouses or bars with drunken sailors. But the historic center is still populated with prostitutes and druggers.

One vicolo, which is one of the main routes I use, has LOTS of ladies working the street. Some of them are quite old (60+). The story is that they have had the same clients for decades, which is how they survive. And there's drugs. I was out with some people from school at a nearby bar and we stopped at an intersection to get our bearings before we headed off in different directions. I noticed a couple of boys snorting coke over to one side--I guess we interrupted them 'cause they took off after they finished their "line".

But "everyone" says "it's not dangerous", meaning you might get pickpocketed, but you won't get physically hurt in the process. And if they recognize you as a "local" you're probably safe from pickpockets. Hopefully by now, they recognize me. It's impossible to go anywhere (without going a LONG way around and WAY up the hill) and avoid the area with the prostitutes and "scary" looking crowd, so you just go through, look like you have a purpose, and make eye contact without looking scared (or like you’re "looking" for something). My usual rule to figure out how safe an area is: watch the little old ladies. If they clutch their purses tightly, then you better watch your pockets. If not, then things are okay. If the little old ladies don't even come out at night, then beware! I haven't seen any little old ladies out after the shops close. Hmmm.

At first I was very disappointed in Genova. And not just because the old city center that I thought was going to be cool turned out to be rather unpleasant. Genova is known to have hundreds of piazzas. The historic center is loaded with them. But they’re almost all tiny little things that have 4-5 story buildings on all sides—so there’s little sun except right at mid-day. Many of them are less than 20 feet on a side. But I’ve discovered other parts of Genova than the historic center. Outside the historic center there are piazzas that are worthy of the name, with caffes and a reasonable amount of sun. And shops that stay open all afternoon (and even some on Sunday).