Great food, Great people, bad jellyfish!

August 5 & 6, 2009

Genova!

On Wednesday night we arrived in Genova after a very long train ride from Venice. We met up with our couch surfing host, Stuart and before dinner we went for a swim! In the Mediterranean! We walked down to the water, hopped on a kayak and headed out to see the coast from the water. Before jumping in we told Stuart how we don't like open water, but he insisted it was safe :)

We swam for almost 45 minutes, watching the full moon rise over the water! The water seemed irredescent and the moon was so brightly lit. Heading back to shore, Stuard decided to swim while we kayaked. Halfway there, we stopped next to him to allow a boat to pass by us. Suddenly Stuard literally jumped out of the water and into the kayak. Both of us thought it was a joke, that he was messing with us and our fear of water. But then we saw his arm! A jellyfish had swam up and got caught in his arm while he was swimming! The welts were amazingly red and lumpy and we decided not to go swimming again!
The full moon over the water!

The view from Stuart's balcony! Perfect! We have enjoyed so many glasses of wine on this balcony!On Thursday, August 6, we took a tour of the town Genova, about a 30 minute train ride from Stuart's home. Genova has the largest aquarium in Europe, but passed because of the $50 admission! Instead we wandered! Here we are resting in the center of town. Genova and the towns around are so unique, on one side you have the sea and on the other, mountains!

The Duomo of Genova with the black and white stiped marble exterior.

This inside seemed like two different cathedrals, the first half looked like it had come out of the movie Beatlejuice, and the second half was gilded up to the wazoo!

Christopher Columbus was from Genova! And they are really proud of him! There are statues all over town and this is a reconstruction of his house!

Along one of the main streets in town, there are several old palaces that are now used as government buildings or they house museums. The buildings themselves were amazing works of art, there would be a large courtyard in the centers with gardens or in this one, a beautiful fountain! While walking down the street, we kept stopping to take a peek inside each palace.

On our way back to the train station, we hopped into this church just to take a look. What we found was so surprising and amazing! The entire ceiling was painted in frescoes with gold leaf detailing all over!

Each night has been amazing. Our first night we met two other couch surfers from Portugal who had several really funny couchsurfing stories! Last night we met a friend of Stuart's and stayed up late drinking, talking and lauging on the balcony! The past few days have been more relaxing and oh so enjoyable!

We are planning on staying here for another 2 nights, then we might be off to Bologna and Florence!

Make sure you read all of the posts we did today! All 7 of them! Whew!