Eating oranges

Today worked out sort of like we originally planned when we put this whole trip together. After a day full of hustling about getting in all the important sites yesterday, today could be given over to picking up those important places we missed and generally wandering about the town enjoying its offerings. No pressure, just take our time and see what happens.

Our first stop was the Catedrale San Lorenzo, which we went by yesterday, but due to a fresh pair of khakis instead of shorts, we were allowed entry. The church was incredible and shot right up into the top 3 of our European favorites. The ceiling frescoes were magnificent, the naves were spectacular and they had an unexploded British bomb from WWII in the entryway. It was all quite awe-inspiring. It definitely helped that we were one of the only ones there.

We had hoped to get in the Cathedral museum, but our entry was blocked by a door with a confusing Italian sign on it. Our best Italian seemed to indicate that maybe we had to go on the internet to get tickets, or maybe we could sell our own tickets on the internet - I'm not quite sure. All I know is we missed some pretty good relics, including a piece of the true cross and the platter on which Salome served the head of John the Baptist. As we had just had breakfast, maybe that turned out for the better.

The Palazzo Reale was pretty much the only major museum that we hadn't hit on the first day. I'm thankful we went back because it was well worth seeing. It's an old royal residence, first owned by one of the aristocratic Genoan families and then taken over by the Savoyards, the eventual royal family of Italy. It has been fully restored, with much of the amazing plaster work and paint recreated. It seems that every inch of every wall or ceiling was covered in something meaningful, either an allegory from ancient Greek legend or a reference to some ancestor of note. The plaster work in the ball room was jaw dropping, and the dining hall reminded us of the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. The best feature was that almost every room had access to a sun drenched terrace, covered in either marble or mosaic and with greenery and fish ponds galore.

We passed back through the Via Garibaldi, towards the Via Balbi, which has some good examples of a cool Genoan art form - buildings with elaborately painted facades. The detail in these faux facades is impressive - fake windowsills, backgrounds and gargoyles, all in faux 3D. You think that for the effort put into making these fake painted facades they could have put in the real thing.

We took an elevator to our next stop. With the crazy hilliness of Genoa there are several places where you can take an elevator up the hill to the next road. These are really cool. You pay your fare like on a bus or train and get in this little car. It goes up the hill at a low angle for some ways, then swivels around, locks into position and goes vertically like an actual elevator. I appreciate the irony that it took someone that was innately lazy ("I'm not walking up that hill") to put in all the work, effort and innovation to come up with this creature comfort.

We took advantage as our next destination was way up in the hills, Castello d'Albertis. The castle was built by Captain Albertis early in the 19th century. He was a sea captain that was rich enough to be called eccentric instead of crazy. His house is filled with the bric-a-brac he collected on his many voyages - a stuffed platypus, moccasins from the Plains Indians and weapons from ancient China. It helps in attracting visitors that his house has a commanding view of the Genoan harbour and Mediterranean.

It was here that we had a great "vacation" moment. Before getting into the museum we found an isolated patio with a good sea view and a sun drenched bench, produced an orange from our bag and proceeded to decompress and just enjoy. The sun was warm, the orange was sweet and juicy, the view was magnificent and the company was great. It was one of those moments that you wish could last much longer than you know it will.

After the museum we searched for and eventually found a post office and sent some cards, then trekked through the city looking for a good place to kill some time before dinner. We succeeded, with a place right in front of our hotel. Surrounded by 4 story buildings, we only had a good shot of sun for about 45 minutes or an hour, but we soaked it all in with a nice bottle of Sicilian red. It was a nice reminder that you don't always need to be doing something or seeing something to get the most out of your vacation. Sometimes just doing your best to extract every gigajoule of sunshine is enough.