A Sleepwalk Through Genoa

Our first day in Italy’s salami country, tired from an early morning flight.

We arrived safely, avoiding all the skyscrapers of Genoa by a few inches. The city is a small ocean industrial city with scenic ocean ports. We walked through the Thursday market and immediately got the best impression of Italy’s finest foods and delicatessens. We bought some wine and then traditionally went into the church. It was big and nice. Genoa was really interesting and hearing nothing about it made it even better. No expectations is the way I like to travel and not seeing any pictures or reading anything about it allowed me to really make my own experience more exciting. Genoa is known for it’s salami and when we arrived we tried many different slices of the delicious salami just walking around the streets. This was my first time walking in Italy and I definitely felt stimulated from little things like crossing a street. One thing that really stuck with me was seeing little bakery and pizza places along the way serving delicious home style thick crusted pizzas. It reminded me of my grandpa’s home cooking and it was so delicious, flavors that no Wolfgang Pucks or any other restaurant can ever re-create. In Genoa I noticed the many different bottles of virgin olive oil in the stores and later saw them in many stores across Italy.

Genoa was just our entry point into Italy and where we flew into to go to Cinque Terre. We took Ryanair Airlines from London for very very cheap, probably around $20. Ryanair has some great specials and is the way to travel. Many Americans like to do the package deals and just throw all their money away because they don’t know the secrets of travelling and where to stay. So as my little recommendation to those travelling from London to Italy, I highly recommend flying here with Ryanair. You will be surprised how cheap you can find flights to all the locations in Italia!!!

During our romp through Genoa we were low on sleep so it was quite the walk through the city… tiring, but a time to remember.