2 nights in Genova part 1.

We very rarely drive somewhere that we don't have a pre-arranged booking for but we thought we would give it a go this time. We knew we wanted to spend a day in Genova as we were given a fantastic book from Gillian and Paul on city breaks compiled by the New York Times and Genova looked interesting.

We've kind of made the rule that we wouldn't visit a place that we would go on holiday to and are trying to keep to more bespoke areas of interest that you might not ever consider visiting. So Genova fell quite nicely into this category.

So I put the co-ordinates into the satnav for Genova and headed off...When we arrived at our satnav destination "the ferry port" things started to get a little stressful, large lorries and cars boarding ferries for all sorts of destinations and us clearly in the wrong place. A hasty exit was required and a multiple point turn around in the docks and back onto the autostrada. We did a quick search for campsites within a 10 mile radius and drove to a site 10km west of the city on the shore of Pegli hoping that a) We could get the van up the narrow Italian roads and b) That they had space for a 8.21m van. Thankfully both were a yes but only just for the first.

The campsite was a small municipal site in a small gorge at the head of the main park in Pegli and only a short walk to the train, bus and water connections to Genova. We headed straight to the water taxi were it cost €3 each for a 35 min ride into the central marina of Genova.

Having read our New York Times book on Genova we had carefully plotted our 2 days of sightseeing. Entering by the marina was ideal as you get the taste of the modern and old. The backstreets of Genova are a maze of tiny allies, some of which you don't want to go down as being a working port prostitution is visible. Some of the streets are so narrow you can easily touch both sides.

Our first stopping point was the Bar Berto which brews its own beer, sadly they only had the one beer on offer and that was 8.9% so I just had the one........

 Just the one....

 Bar Berto square.

Next on the hit list was the San Lorenzo Cathedral which dates back to the 9th Century. Its distinctive zebra striped facade is one of Genova's most recognized landmarks and is repeated on several modern building too. 

After a bit of culture we headed to the next recommendation from the NYT a tiny sandwhich shop Gran Ristoro that just serves filled rolls with a choice of about 200 different meats and cheeses, prosciutto, capicola, pancetta, spianata, salami, etc. Two rolls and two glasses of Chianti cost €5.