I find walking one of the best ways to get a real feel for the town. My hotel is almost at sea level and the university venue is pretty high, so i start walking down hill. I wlak for about 15 mins until my calf muscles are sore again. I'm cursing Trent Reznor with every step – as I flick through the guide book from my conference pack to try to find out where I am. I am pretty sure i'm walking in the right direction cos I recognise the mountains. Sailors navigate using the stars, Scotsmen use mountains.
I manage to read a section of the guide book which tells me my first interesting fact about Genova. ......Genova is one of the longest cities in Europe – 34 Km.........
TAXI!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm boring - I decide on the first night of sleep in a bed thats going to last longer tha 6 hours in about a week should be savoured.
_/\_
Second day of the conference and I have a presentation to prepare. Most of the day is spent taking in interesting presentations – taking advantage of the wifi which is becoming standard at conferences and taking advantage of the wonderfully authentic and wonderfully cheap espresso bar on the top floor.
The conference runs late, so by the time I go on, we are already over running into the social dinner time. It's frustrating, but it does mean that I get to know the chair and other speakers in my session. They turn out to be pretty cool guys from Genova and my dinner mates for the evening.
They confirm another Italian cliché – they love to talk about food. This makes for a great advantage – my food comes with commentary which you can't buy in a guide book.
As canopes we have deep fried vegetables. I would describe it as similar to Japanese Tempura. It is pretty tasty – lets face it – scotsmen like their deep fried battered food whatever it is. Apparently the artichokes are the speciality, so I have a good few of them.
Once we are at the tables, the conversation continues. We exchange stories of Scotland and Italy. Everyone there like to tell tales of their own country so the conversation never stops. They are fascinated withs tories of scotland and I do my bit for Scottish tourism by explaining that Genova to Milan on the train is 12 Euros and then Milan to Prestwick was 12 pounds for me. I also find out some Genovan slang. “Belin” excuse the spelling seems to be used in a similar grammatcal means as “fuck” in English. Apparently you can say that something is “Belin” good to enhance it's meaning. I'm not sure that I get it completely, but it was important to the Genovans.
The first course is a seafood platter. It's pretty tasty – we're close to the sea – so it must be fresh.
The second course is a pasta. I'm told that the Italians only export the crap pasta, and it would appear to be true – this is a really great dish. It looks like it has been grated and is again a Genovan special. I get told off for using my knife to eat it. I ask what it's called and I'm told “pesto” they are correct but i still don't know what they pasta is called
After that we have some sort of fish steak, this is the least strong of the courses, tasty enough, but all the other courses were wonderful.
We follow this with a Tiramisu, its then on our feet again for mingling and Limoncello. Although our table has been knocking back the white wine, it seems we are the least drunk of the tables. The Limoncello disappears as fast as the waiter can refill the decanter. People are drinking it from wine glasses. It's bizarre being the well behaved one. I feel rather out of place.
It's then bed time. We not really – a group of us gather intending to move onwards to see a few bars. This group gets smaller as we get closer to the bars. People are beginning to regret drinking quite as much Limoncello I think.
We are reduced to our Genovan guide, and Irishman, a Scotsman and an Australian. The last three nations consider drinking a national sport – this could be carnage. We land at a little busy bar in some lively side street. It's Wednesday night – yet the city is thriving. It must be it's high student population.
We get into the bar and I head off to the toilet. I open the toilet door and two girls shout at me “ Eet eez beeezeeee” as I enter the door. They were shouting at the air and I happen to have walked in at that moment. They are as surprised as I am. I quickly retort “How did you know I spoke English” they were equally quick telling that my name didn't sound Italian. I have made the age old mistake of forgetting to take off my conference badge.
We get talking as I wait to piss. It turns out that one of them is an archaeologist and one a psychologist. I make a comment about both digging up heavily buried old stuff but it seems to be lost on them. What is really strange is that they are sitting with their dog.
So.... I return from the toilet with two Italian women and a dog. I'm the hero of the guys. Its now last orders at the bar, so we quickly get some drinks before walking on to a club recommended by our new found hosts for the evening. The walk from busy street full of Bars to club is longer than it should be – but it gives us a chance to finish our beer and be told the story of the oldest bank in the Mediteranian:
This was taken the next day. The first cheque in the world was written here. On the side of the building is a huge paining of St. George slaying the dragon. I now get some more Genovan facts.
The St. Georges cross(i.e English flag) is actually part of the Genovan arms. St George is therefore their saint, and actually the English are only allowed to use their flag because the city of Genova have expressed their permission. So from now on I can ask people sporting a St. Georges cross if they are from Genova. Then when they tell em they are from Genova, I ask if they have permission to use the flag.
So we eventually turn up at the Banano Tsunami, our chosen club for the evening:
It is an outdoor club in the middle of the docs and beside the aquarium. The above photo was taken the next day. It's quite strange being in a club which is outdoors – it feels like a barbeque but with beers that cost 6 euros.
It's a really trendy club – it is in the classiest part of Genova and also the drinks are really expensive. I find myself asking why then they play the clash – maybe dance and disco has finally had it's day and trendy clubs play good music now. Even more bizarre is that there is a dog with us.
In Scotland(maybe just Glasgow) in order to keep their handbags safe, women dance in a ring with their bags in the centre. Either there is a lot of dog napping in Genova or that dog is holding the make up and tampons.
The night continues, and eventually it's time for home. So I get run home through the streets of Genova in a Ford Ka. I couldn't remember the club's name the next day. I still can't remember the girls names, but I'm pretty sure the dog was called Milo. Selective memory is a strange thing.
The final day of the conference is interesting. This is mainly due to some very interesting hangovers, the main one being Limoncello. I'm relatively fresh, having stuck to only white wine and then a few beers in the club. I'm so well behaved!!!
On my final day in Genova my plane isn't until 4pm, sso I have time to go and see the sites. During my trip to Leuven, I had dinner with a researcher from Florence, and she said that if I was in Leuven, I had to go to the Aquarium. I found this strange – land of history – beautiful buildings – wonderful food, and I'm going to the city which has a good aquarium. But when in Rome.....(ha ha Geddit??? No neither did most of the Genovan's I said it to)
So 12 Euros to go to an aquarium. It is beside Banano Tsunami, so I take the snaps shown above. To be honest the aquarium is really well set out. The fish/animals/exhibits(What is PC??) have loads of room.
It's probably the best auqarium I've ever been in, but I've not been in many. It beats the Sealife centre outside Oban in Scotland.
I get to see sharks, turtles, big fish, little fish, penguins etc., But by far my favourtie tank was the finding Nemo tank. In here we had all the fish from finding Nemo. I was amazed that they actually look like they do in the cartoons. Really bright primary colours etc. This was also a major attraction for all the kids.
Bizarre – three days ago I was in a field with Scotsmen singing to Soundgarden songs, now I am in an aquarium in Italy looking at the real life Nemo – could my life be any more complete???
Now I have time to have a quick wander around the dock at Genova before heading back to Amsterdam for what will hopefully be an adventureless few days.
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