And our Italian month adventure begins. Our first stop was in Genova (Genoa), Italy for 2 nights/3days.
Genoa is a very old port city with a bustling port even before the Romans. Closer to the water is the "old city" area, which is medieval style with extremely narrow dark winding alleyways.
We booked our Airbnb in the old city by the water because as every other place we have visited, the old city centers are where most tourist things are. But not in Genoa!
Apparently, the closer you get to the water the more dangerous it is and we are pretty much on the water.
On a Sunday afternoon walking to a restaurant for an early dinner, we quickly discovered how extremely seedy it was. The population in this area is mostly made up of Nigerians and Arab Muslims. By the time we had finished dinner and started walking back, it went from just very seedy to fucking scary. There were no women on the streets at all, only men. Every one of them was staring us down and felt like they were ready to kill me and rape Lily. It was crazy.
Thankfully we got back ok to our Airbnb, which is a beautiful rooftop apartment above all the riff-raff and stayed in for the night. Looking down on the streets, all you saw besides men was an occasional prostitute or a woman dressed from head to toe in a burka walking very fast to her destination. Now I can understand why Muslim women wear the burka and why they are usually accompanied by a man.
The next morning, we went out and the streets were completely different! Still scary dark and intimidating narrow alleyways everywhere. But at least men were not staring you down as you walked by. We headed more inland away for the water to explore. Once you get past the old city center, you come into this gorgeous Italian city with 400-year-old buildings everywhere. That is was we were expecting down at the "old city center" but NO! Anyways, this area was simply gorgeous. We would come back again, but now we know where not to stay!
The next evening, thanks to our last creepy experience, we decided to stay in and cook instead of going out. So we got stuff for a nice salad and, of course, wine bottles. Plus, the rooftop was amazing and we figured that would be very enjoyable.
Once back at the house, the Airbnb host offed us a traditional Genova pasta pesto tasting. He was going to make it from scratch! This was super nice, we ended up in a home cooking class and learned how to make Genova pesto from scratch!!! We can't wait to get home to make it! Who is coming over for some Genoa style dinner? We will take reservations lol
Anyways, the night tuned out quite nice. We made the salad with a homemade dressing Lily whipped up, the pesto pasta and the 2 bottles of wine.
We went to the rooftop, right before sunset. Set up the tables, chairs, placemats etc and brought up all our food and drinks. We had a great evening full of delicious food, drinks, and conversation. Our host is a 23-year-old college student going for a History degree...so he had a LOT to share!
This made our stay unforgettable and we are very grateful. Thank you to our host!!!
Thanks for reading...
L & H
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