Genova (Genoa to English speakers) has been the capital of the Ligurian region since Genova was its own republic state in 1005 and it is a busy port and important commercial centre.
We had booked a hotel room for or 15th wedding anniversary celebrations however due to the breakdown we had to rearrange the room for a few days later. We parked The Van at a campsite at Pegli, a 30 minute train ride from Genova centre. The train was late and not very attractive but it got us there in the end! As we arrived on a rainy Sunday not much was open so we explored the old town.
We enjoyed the narrow streets and extravagant buildings all crammed in together with tall thin houses and small shops via for attention.
Then we retired to our hotel for drinks and dinner. We had a pleasant drink in the hotel bar and chatted to an American lady, Nancy, whose job was something to do with fish. She was on a work trip and was very keen to talk. After drinks we ordered dinner to the room! We’ve never had room service before! I had pesto pasta which is a Genova speciality and Dave had sea bass.
The next morning it was still raining so we decided to visit the Aquarium. I think Nancy talking about fish must have influenced us! We started the day with the breakfast buffet. They had pancakes, pastries, cheese, meat, cereals, yogurts, fruit and cooked breakfast. We tried as many different things as possible to to fill up for the day!
Considering it was a Monday the queue for the aquarium was quite long. Once we had tickets we began exploring. It is a varied exhibition with dolphins, manatees, fish from all different seas and river environments, jellyfish (a favourite of mine) and a few land based animals such as tortoises.
We got the train back to Pegli and The Van. We had missed The Van even though we had only been away one night although we had enjoyed the space a king size double bed gives you.
When we returned to The Van, we found we had squatters! It turns out that we’d parked on an ants’ nest (actually most of the campsite appears to have been an ants’ nest). There was a neat line of ants climbing up the electric hookup cable, up the side of the van and into a vent. From there they were exploring the inside of The Van. It was easy enough to halt the march for newcomers up the cable, but we’ve got a few dozen not entirely welcome stowaways with us for now… they’ll soon be a looong way from home.