Dear @rambo @missy and @lyxzen, you gave us a homework about our favourite smartphone app... Well, I don'a have one!
So I rummaged through old homeworks and I found this one: "8/1: Be our tour guide to your city!" As my city is Genova, even if I don't live there anymore, and as I think this is one of the best places in Earth (hey, it's still MY HOME), I decided to write it!!
If you don't know Genova, it is a quite small city on the seaside, between France and Tuscany, right south of Milan, you can check it here.
It's a very ancient city, it was created around 700 b.C., and almost all kind of humans have stopped: Phoenicians, Etruscans and Greeks traded with Genova and they often stopped there for some nights, with some local girl, of course those local girls had babies which were half Genoese and half Phoenicians, Etruscans or Greeks... Or whatever.
Rome was built quite at the same time, and when Romans arrived, they were somehow welcomed in Genova: they paid well, and that's the only thing that matters! So Genova became a big harbour for the Roman Empire, and the city started growing.
Genova has undergone many invasions: Carthaginians, Saracens, Austrian, French... And the Romans, who went without invasions... All of them left some sons in Genova, so we are a beautiful mix: you can find blonde and blue eyed people, or dark complexion and dark eyed, totally from Genova. Never ask them if they are from India or northern Africa.
No invader could stay long in Genova: there people got free from German Nazists by its own, one day befor Americans came to free all the rest of Italy. They came in Genova and found everything free and working.
In Italy, Genoese people are jocked as Scottish are in the rest of the world: thay say we are tightfisted. The real thing is that we are thrifty: never spend if it's not needed, but always offer a guest all the comfort he/she needs. No Genoese person will ever deny to pay you a coffee, if you are his guest.
We also are famous because we all have a bad temper, never mess with us! If you are staying in a (cheap) hotel in Genova, you might think that the staff is not friendly, or that they are very cold people, and you could have the same feeling at the restaurant. But, if you step there, try to pic a Genoese and say "I love your city, it's stunning!" and suddenly he will pay you a piece of focaccia and talk to you about the city, about the places to see, where to eat and where to find friendly people. With us, you should never say things like "Well, Genova is nice, but Milano is better!" or "Yep, it's nice, but at my place we do it better". The answer you'll get could sound a bit like "You still here? Why? Go back to your place/Milan! We don't need you." xD
Just try to understand us: we live in the most beautiful city in Earth and everyone still says that it's not! xD xD
(After that, if you can understand Italian, just read those few lines.)
So, let's start our tour around my beautiful, messy, stinky, narrow and dirty city!
First of all, you need to taste our focaccia! I love the one with onions, but you can find it with quite anything: onions, potatoes, rosemary, olives, frankfurter, italian sausage, etc, etc... We also make it stuffed with cheese, cheese and ham, cheese and vegetables, etc etc etc... I love it all!!
So, in the city centre, I like to step in a tiny bakery in a side street of Via San Lorenzo. In that road, you will see our Cathedral, there are two sad lions statues on guard, which I truly love.
From the Cathedral you go straight down, find that bakery on the right (it's tiny! Never step into big bakeries in Genova.), get back on the main road and find the Ancient Seaport, which is not ancient anymore. Here you find our aquarium, the largest in Europe. The idea behind it was t make a ship with the sea inside, so it is somehow a huge ship right IN the sea. In this way, all the species inside it can actually breathe the sea air, and feel more comfortable. If you want to visit the aquarium you should know that it takes at least 4/5 hours.
Don't stay long in this area and, to my taste, you should also NOT have lunch/dinner in Eataly: it's full of places a bit dirty, but truly traditionals. From the Ancient Port and the Aquarium area you can take a look to Palazzo San Giorgio
and then move to Via del Campo, it's not such a beautiful way, but Fabrizio De Andrè wrote a song about it, you find it here. From this narrow street you can reach Piazza Fossatello, than take Via Lomellini and reach Via Balbi where you can see the headquarters of the University. After that you can go on and see one of the main train station: Piazza Principe. The building is very beautiful, but it's full of strange people, I'm not sure that you'll feel comfortable there... Then, go back throug Via Balbi, than take Largo Zecca and go on in Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, than you'll find Piazza del Portello: there is an elevator of the public transport (you need to buy a ticket to use it) which will take you to Spianata Castelletto. From there you will have one of the most breathtaking view on Genova. Also, get an icecream at Guarino's place, it will be nice to eat it sitting on Genova. (Tripadvisor here!)
When you're ready to get off from Spianata Castelletto take the elevator and go back down, take Via Interiano and reach Piazza Fontane Marose, take a look in Via Garibaldi: Palazzo Bianco, Palazzo Rosso and Palazzi Dei Rolli are UNESCO heritage. Get back in Piazza Fontane Marose and take Via XXV Aprile, go straight and you'll be in Piazza De Ferrari.
From here, you can get back to the Cathedral in less than 5 minutes. But it's not where we are going. If you are here in the night, then you should only try to find some English speaking person and ask if you can go with them, or just follow the crowd and step in the night life around our pedastrian narrow street. You will fall in love with it. And don't forget to get a drink thinking about me!
If it's still day, go down in Via XX Settembre: you can shop a bit, and don't forget to take a look at the beautiful buildings around you. Than stop someone and ask how you can reach Ponte Monumentale: that bridge that goes on Via XX Settembre. It's too difficoult to explan you how to go up there here, but take a look to half of the beauty that's waiting for you!
After it, just get off again on Via XX Settembre and go down, you will be in Piazza della Vittoria. If you dare, you can climb the stairs, and you'll never regret it:
Take some time and then step down, in Piazza della Vittoria there is the better Hamburgeria I know: La Moucca. With max 12 Euros you can get 1 italian hamburger with 300 gr of meat from Piemonte, one of the best in Italy, a medium beer and fried potatoes. EVERYTHING is certified Slow Food and km. zero. Please, get your lunch there, they are open from 12.00 to 24.00, every day.
After eating a great hamburger, you can reach the main road Viale Brigata Bisagno get on the bus 31, ask someone to tell you when you are arriving to Boccadasse. You will be on Corso Italia, the city seafront. There is a church, and under it a square, from that square you'll take a tipically, narrow street and you will find that you cannot hear the noises from the main road anymore. You are in one of the most beautiful fishermen village, the soul of Genova is divided between here and the Vicoli (all the narrow streets you visited before arriving in De Ferrari, the square with the fountain).
Here is a preview of what you'll find:
Take your time and take a look around, and, if you want, you can decide to spend a bit more and stay for dinner, eating our fresh fish. If you prefere to take a beer and an italian sandwich, than use you GPS to locate La Pecora Nera and just enjoy your evening.
If you decided to break the tour and you are spending more than one day, and you're in Boccadasse during the day, get back on Corso Italia and, with the sea on your left, go on this walk and take a look around: there are some beautiful villas on your right!
If you still have time, get some bus/taxi/whatever and step into the monumental Cemetery of Staglieno. First of all: try to not get lost. And now, enjoy all the beauty of death and sadness:
I think that I gave you something like 3 days of tour, so I'll stop. If you want, search for Nervi, a district quite far from the city centre, right on the sea, with a stunning promenade.
(Under the train station of Nervi there is one of my fav bakery, don't miss it!)
For now I'll try to stop, let me know if you will ever visit my stunning city.
A very big hug,
Brunhild
