Author: Bill

We left Budapest on a Railjet train from Keleti Station.  And we were due for some, luck it was there an hour early so we could board, stow our luggage and enjoy comfortable seating while we waited to leave Budapest for Vienna.   For this trip we booked in Business Class, which was one step higher than or usual 1st class seats, for an extra €9.  And they were very fine indeed.   Instead of being right across from your seat mate, you were staggered giving everyone a lot more legroom.   That was very nice feature,  we have these booked from Vienna to Salzburg and from there to Munich four days later.  From Munich we  are back on EC type trains that are no where near as comfortable.

Tami &Scott booked a separate place in Vienna as their son Chas was in town, we booked a place that turned out to be about as bad as it could get.   The room was the size of a closet,  a small closet.  In order to sleep on the bed, the far person would have to climb over you.  There was no other way to get to that side of the bed.  This was nothing like the pictures of the room we booked.   To add to the ambiance there was a very noisy macerator placed just behind the toilet bowl that turned on as you flushed.  Also, the place seemed like a fire trap,  it was like a maze to get to the rooms, must have been 15 doors to go thru to get to the elevator and a few more doors to find the room.  If there had been a fire in the night, I’m pretty sure there would be no chance of finding the stairs in the smoke, I looked for them but was unable to find which door they were with the lights on and no smoke!   I started calling around and after a couple hours found another place for the 4 nights in Vienna and we Uber’d over there.  For the same exact money we got a very nice hotel room about 5 times the size (a normal budget room)  with a very nice bathroom and a shower about as large as ours at home.  (5’x5′)  It was also right next to a Tram stop.   The folks from the prior place would not give me my money back.   I am going to leave reviews of them everywhere I can,  I felt like I was defrauded by their fake pictures.

While working on finding a new place to stay I found a highly rated Mexican joint and we walked over and had dinner.  We were pleasantly surprised by the food.  Reminded us a bit of Chipotle back home.  On the walk over I spotted a hotel that wasn’t on the google map for hotels.  It was called the Orient Hotel.   I walked inside and it was an odd looking older hotel, lots of red velvet.  I asked the guy over in the corner if it was a hotel and he said it was a “special” hotel, they only rented rooms for 3 hours at a time.

Tue Next day we had great Goulash at a small sidewalk cafe a short tram ride from the hotel and later for dinner we found a Chinese joint that was really good.  I had to figure out how the public transit worked in this new city.  They don’t have tap 2 pay here yet.  Each train has a ticket machine at in one of the front tram cars.   It worked well, but was a bit difficult to use as the tram is moving by the time you find it.  There was a button for English and 2 senior tickets were €3 for your trip and most of the time the machine let you tap your card to pay.  (tickets were only good for one direction of travel)  not for a certain amount of time like in other cities.   After doing the ticket machine a bunch of times I decided to give the Phone App a try, it was much simpler and you could get the tickets prior to boarding so it was was easier to do right there at the stop while waiting for the next tram to arrive.  (there were a lot of trams, they arrived never more than 6 minutes apart)

Wed, we took the tram down to the center of town and wandered around the palaces and gardens till lunch time and then hit up a place I had wanted to go since seeing a video of it probably 25 years ago.   The City Center Cafe.  It did not disappoint.   Quite a beautiful place and the food was excellent too.  Our waiter seemed to be able to read our minds too, no small feat,  I cannot remember that ever happening before, anywhere.

We had tickets to a concert in the Musikverein (Vienna Music Society) which turned out to be very odd.   There were two sections to the building and we were in a smaller venue with a small band, maybe 7 pieces.   It started out great but after 15 minutes they stopped and left taking their instruments.  About 10 minutes later more performers came out than there were before and also a woman without an instrument.  Turned out she was going to read us a book while the band looked on.  Occasionally she would stop and the band would play 15-20 seconds of music and then she would start again.  I have no idea what she was telling us, just a lot of guttural utterances.   We took off at intermission, which didn’t come quickly enough.

Thurs, we laid low today and snuck out for lunch to an amazing little Viennese joint.   We got the mixed grill plate to share and I was shocked how much food they brought.   We had a lot of leftovers, but no fridge to bring it all back to.

Friday morning we packed up and hopped on the tram toward the Rennweg tram stop, got off and  walked about 100 yards over to find the connecting tram stop.   I thought the R3 was another tram or bus, but when we got to that tram stop I could see on schedule for that stop there wasn’t a R3 or similarly numbered tram or bus on the sign,  rechecking G maps I could see I was not exactly in the correct place, very very close, but not quite on it.  We had to backtrack a 100 feet and found a walkway that led to the entrance (completely unmarked) of a Metro station (Subway).   We fumbled around to figure out what platform by watching what direction the trains were going.    Then an R1 train pulled in and I checked on the schedule,  it too went to the Central Vienna Station and we jumped on.  Kathy barely in tow.

We arrived a few minutes later and proceeded to take a myriad of lifts and elevators to find platform 7.   We were a bit early so stopped at a cafe inside the station and I drank a Cafe Americano. (the closest thing to Coffee from home)

We met Tami and Scott up on the platform were the mentioned they were in coach 37 (we were in coach 27) I asked if he was sure as earlier in the morning when I looked up the train configuration online there wasn’t a coach 37 listed.  But there was a sign on the platform showing a coach 37.   When the train pulled into the station we could see there wasn’t a coach 37.   Luckily about 15 minutes later they added a bunch of other cars (another #27) and they were told that 27 was really 37 on the new additions so they got on for the 3 hour trip to Salzburg.

 

 

Arrived by bus Thursday late afternoon, it was long and fairly uncomfortable and to make things so much better with some women yelling at her phone (on speaker no less) most of the 4.5 hour ride.    When you’re 6’5″ tall riding the bus truly sucks..

 

Took a Tram most of the way to the apartment then hopped on a bus right there that took us to within ~100 feet of our apartment doorway.   Little did I know then that there was a bus stop right in front of our door to the building.  We figured that out the next day.

We went out for dinner that first night and found Kismezo right around the corner.  I had a great Goulash that was more like soup than what I was used to.  But it was great.

Friday morning we had tickets for a guided tour of the Hungarian Parliament building.  Wow was that a nice building.   It was a great tour.

Then we headed over to the Funicular to see the city from higher up and check out the castle that is there.   Long line for the Funicular, and its a short ride up.  And it was about ~$30 for the 2 of us.  Not exactly a bargain for a few minute ride.  Especially considering folks over 60 ride all public transit for Free in Budapest!  The funicular isn’t public transit apparently.

After the funicular we took a tram over to a Goulash restaurant that had a lot of good reviews.  It wasn’t nearly as good as the prior evenings Goulash.   There was way more potato than there was meat in it.

That evening we headed over to the Ruin Bars for a drink then walked back toward the apartment looking for a place to eat.  Quite an interesting joint those ruin bars.   I thought it was a bunch of bars in the area, but instead ita a bunch of bars inside a bombed out building.   We had a beer and a Aperol  Spritz.  We ended up at a Greek joint on the walk home,  I had a Giro Plate and Kathy got a Falafal Plate.    After we finished we walked the rest of the way back to the apartment which was just a couple more blocks.

We ended up back at Kismezo for lunch on Saturday.  Kathy had a burger and I had the goulash again.

Saturday evening we booked an after sunset one hour cruise on the Danube to view the city lights after dark.   It did not disappoint!   The skyline at night is gorgeous and the Parliament building is the gemstone on the river.

We found that Taxi’s here in Budapest are pretty cheap.   Only cost us $8 from the waterfront to our apartment.  And it was the same rate for any size vehicle including a 6 passenger van.  The app to use here is called Bolt.  Uber is quite a bit more expensive to use here than bolt we stuck with that while in Budapest.  They probably just mark up the regular rate that bolt charges for their cut.

 

 

 

Tram right outside the station went directly to the plaza where our apartment was located.  One of our easiest transfers so far.

Lots of stairs to get up to the elevator.  UGH.  When you filter on apartments for elevator to upper floors in the booking.com app I never expected a 32′ climb to the elevator from the ground floor.    We had something similar in Chur Switzerland.

We wandered down to a Ramen place on the other side of the square with great ratings but they were full and we hadn’t made reservations.   The next night we walked over and had one of our best meals.  That first night Kathy and I went to a pancake restaurant just a few hundred meters in the other direction.  It was mobbed, but we were able to score seats right away as a couple got up as we were walking in.

Pancakes for dinner were amazing

 

 

Huge outdoor market right behind our room.   Then underneath that was a meat and bakery market, huge.   Coffee at a bar with everyone drinking beer at 7am..   And that Croissant with bacon bits on the top, was over the top tasty.

Walking tour with Darko was great, he really made the city come alive.  The witch catcher was nothing I had seen before. And the cannon blast was a bit out of the ordinary.   The view up by that was pretty nice.

 

Took the tram to the bus station not far past the train station.   Bus ride from hell to Budapest was next.

 

Th

We arrived at the Slovenia train station after taking the 12:52 IC train from Trieste in first class seats that were closer to second class than the first class seats we had gotten accustomed too.  Wondering if this will be the norm from now on.   After getting off we found a taxi that got us to the walking area of the old town.  Then a short “slog” to our hotel called Kollman Rooms which turned out to be a walk-up, lots of old wooden steps that were not level.   The rooms were very modern inside but the but the building was pretty old (like everywhere else we’ve been so far on this trip.

Julija  Restaurant one block from the river and our hotel.  I had Goulash, Kathy had the Duck.  Both were superb.

Joe Peña’s Cantina y Bar for lunch the next day with Tami’s friends who are living and working in Ljubljana for their church.  The Fajitas were very good.  But not spicy, bring your own favorite hot sauce with you to Europe.  Nothing so far has had anything that could remotely be called hot or spicy.

That evening we had Burgers for dinner and somehow found a real gelatto place (with the covers) about 500 meters down the river from our hotel.

This is truly a walking town,  no cars are allowed in the old town walking area.  Which is a fairly large place.

It rained most of the time we were here.

We were getting ready to check out after paying for late checkout and I happened to notice the walking area electric cart parked next door to hour hotel.   I quickly ran outside to ask the driver if he could take us to the tain station, he said what I thought was Yes.   I ran back in, told Tami and Scott and asked them to stall him while we got our luggage and brought them down all the stairs to the ground floor.   He waited, took our baggage, loaded it on top of T&S’s and we climbed aboard and off we went.   I wasn’t really sure where he would actually take us as I wasn’t sure he really understood what I was asking.   That Walking area ride service driver took us all the to the train station on a very rainy day.  That really ended our stay in Ljubljana on a high note!

 

Walked less than a hundred meters from the train station to our B&B Hotel.  Pretty nice for such an inexpensive hotel.  That was very nice as we were schlepping our bags.

Had a walking tour setup for 2pm, a couple hours after arriving.  Not the best plan but we did it anyway.   Trieste isn’t a large city, but it sure does have a complicated history.   Lots of lovely buildings and waterfront.  The buses are aw-sum but the drivers think the gas pedal is just on and off…  no finesse at all.  herky jerky while you are trying to tap your credit card to pay.

Kathy slept and rested most of the first and second days there.   (smart)  When the 3 of us got back from the walking tour we were exhausted. (don’t get old)  That evening I found a small Italian Trattoria with great reviews just a few hundred meters from our hotel.    It turned out to be the best dinner so far (one month already in Italy) and we’ve had a lot of excellent meals here.    It may have had something to do with the two big glasses of wine or beers.  Not sure.   Its called Salsapariglia Italian Ristorantino – Trieste Restaurant if you ever get to Trieste.  Small place and you probably need reservations.  (we did as it was Friday night)

Saturday, Kathy and I bused down to the center of town for lunch and afterward I took the Tram di Opicina (old tram up to the town of Opicina, steep climb that uses a pusher tractor on the steepest part, closest to downtown.)   Its crowded and uses Tap 2 Pay.  ~$1.70 each way depending on exchange rate.  Its got history if you want to read about it.   I took the bus down as it was uncrowded and had Air Conditioning .

The next morning our checkout was unusually late for Italy, noon!  Our train leaves just before one pm so kind of perfect.  But we do get to Ljubljana close to 4pm.

 

Arrived at Santa Lucia train station on a Frecca from Verona and started looking around for the #1 Vaperetto to get to the apartment.   On our way to the ticket booth we were stopped by the Policia and asked for our tax payment paperwork to be on the island.  We told them we had rooms and had already paid.   They said fine, not even waiting for us to find the email that was sent to us to prove the taxes were paid.     We found the ticket office and it was 9.5 Euros each for 75 minutes on the “bus”.     After getting the tickets we walked over to the Dock E, a short way to the platform to get on the next “bus’.   At the validation machine on land there were a few guys trying to look official with lanyards and some white card with something written on them.  They grabbed our tickets and validated them and then grabbed our luggage and rolled it onto the dock.  Then the clowns came to me and showed me a receipt for 50 Euros and said we had to pay for our luggage.   I called their bluff when I stood up saying lets get the policia to straighten this out.   As I walked out behind them up the gangway, one guy turned to me and said, Never-mind and they all walked away.   A few moments later when I turned back around after getting back on the platform they were all gone, no where to be seen.   No an auspicious start to our stay in Venice.

Got on the next Vaporetto and with in minutes it took us to our stop.  We walked off and went down a very narrow alley out to one of the larger streets and maybe 100 yards to the right, I stopped to determine where the door to the apartment was.  Then I guy standing there asked if I was william…  He lead us to the room and explained everything we needed to know.   This place even had a washing machine, GREAT!   We were tired of washing clothes in sinks when a laundromat wasn’t convenient.  (which was a lot of places)

Anyway, this is one of the nicest apartments yet.  We are on the 6th floor, but no real view to speak of.  Nice elevator were all four of us could fit in at once (not many of those. (Only 2 if you had luggage)   The bedrooms were Miniature with that capital M…   It had a nice living room and small kitchen,  but as we are finding almost everywhere, no Microwave.  So far, only the apartment in Genoa had a Micro.   There seemed to be plenty of outlets in the kitchens.  But not many in all the other rooms.  I think the standard in the us is an outlet every 6 feet,  I think in Italy, its maybe every 20 feet, if there is a standard.

First afternoon walked over to the Rialto Bridge, it was mobbed as expected.   Went back to the room for a nap.  Later went out for dinner as a small fish place, but none of us had fish.  The pasta was very good though.

Second day we left early for St Marks Square.   Not very crowded.  Saw the Bridge of Sighs again.  Then they went into St Marks church.  (I was church-ed out by then)   I walked over to the bell tower as there wasn’t much of a line.  But I wasn’t planning on going up into it as I assumed it was a zillion stairs up.   When I asked how many steps up, they replied no stairs,  they only allow folks on the elevator..  YEAH!!   I ran over to the ticket line, of about 6 people and within minutes I was whisked to the top.  What a view of Venice and the surrounding islands.  So glad I asked.  The rest of the day we just wondered around the alleys and canals.   On the first afternoon we took a Service Gondola to get back across the Grand Canal where our apartment was located.  Talk about tippy canoe…  (wheres Tyler?)

That afternoon we set out to find a good gelatto shop on the island.  From what I could tell there were two of  them.  (viewing the pictures on google maps) we headed over to the service gondola with Tami and Scott.  It seemed even tippier… if that’s a word.   You sit on the gunwales, which are about 5″ wide.  Its quite a rocking thing as all the Vaporetto and boats motor by causing all sorts of waves..    One thing you will notice in Venice, there are no straight routes to anywhere.   Lots of T intersections on the walks where you must decide which way to go.  You must have a good sense of direction as the narrow walkways don’t allow much GPS signal to get to your phone.   Its quite an experience you just have to like, otherwise its a bit frustrating.  I love it, apparently the only one who does in our group.  About 8/10th of the way to the first listed shop we lost two of our group to go back and take more pictures of the Rialto bridge. (I was done going back into that chaos)  We had already been there 3 times during our 2 night stay.  (which only gives you one full day in the city)  About 5 minutes later we found the 1st shop,  they did not sell any gelatto, none it was a pizza shop.   It was another 5 minutes of walking to get to the other one that was in the train station.  We got there,  Luckily Kathy found a church just prior and wanted to go inside.

There is a chain of Gelatto shops called Grom that has the non tourist gelatto.  (In the covered pots)    We enjoyed our good gelatto and then bought tickets to ride the Vaporetto back to the apartment.

The next morning we had an early train to get to Venice Mestre (on the mainland) so we were able to purchase tickets at the machine on the dock for the Vaporetto ride to the Train Station,  board a Regional train and in Mestre we caught the Frecca to Trieste.

 

 

We road a Frecca from Milan to Verona Porto Nuovo station,  our apartment was near the big Porta Nuova city gate, just a short walk from the train station.   It was a very nice place with a large living room.  We have not had livings rooms in the apartments we have stayed in till this one.  Most just had uncomfortable chairs in the kitchen area.  This place was large.   The first evening there we had great pizza, but the ladies said their pasta wasn’t up to snuff.   Kathy and I went back the next night for pizza.  It was great again!   Note to sell, ask them to cut the pizza to make it easier to eat, otherwise they do not cut it, requiring you to find a knife somewhere.

The next morning we headed to the Arena, at what is now the center of the old town.   Looks a lot like a short version of the Colosseo,  but was missing a lot of the external cladding as it had collapsed during a long ago earthquake.   From there we headed out to look for lunch as we weren’t wanting fish and chips.   We found this great little spot with a large outside patio covered by very big umbrellas.  Kathy was not  interested in the 4 P’s for lunch and got a nice looking salad.  I ordered a Panini,  one of the P’s.    Pretty good,  when finished we were just a short walk to the Arch where the walking tour starts.

Had a great walking tour with a really good guide that explained all the history of the area.   This picture is of the gate where we met the guide.   Verona is cool town, but the Romeo and Gillette stuff is all a scam.  As they were fictional.  It was incredible to me that the gullible folks paid to stand in line to see the balcony.

Walked over to lunch, Kathy had the no PPPP lunch.

Wandered over to the 2 hour walking tour.   The guide was very good.  We visited lots of landmarks including the Romeo and Gillette house. (all fictional)  You will see the ruts in the roadway below the gate from carts and roman chariots.

Ended tour an walked to the bus stop to get back home, but a different bus appeared and we got on by mistake.  Ended up a good distance from the apartment so we had a 15 minute walk instead of the 4 minute walk if we had waited a few more minutes more and took the bus that went right behind our apartment.   But because of that bus stopping far away we did get to stop and sit-down at an outdoor bar and spend some money on wine and bottled beer as our dogs were barking after walking a lot that day.

Took an Uber to the Verona train station as a nice treat to start the day for the trip to Venice as I knew getting around Venice with luggage would be challenging.

 

 

Boarded a 3 hour long EuroCity train to Zurich.  Nice views all the way, except in the tunnels.  One of them was the Gotthard Base Tunnel,  recently reopened after a freight train derailment a couple years back.   Its the longest (35 miles) and deepest tunnel at 7500+ feet deep.   The time went pretty quickly and then we were in Zurich.   It was around noon so I thought we would stop for lunch but that didn’t appear to be in the cards.  Some of us were in a bit of a hurry to get to Chur.   So we took a regional train that was close to 2 hours long to get there.   The 1 hour trains were all canceled due to track work on the direct line to Chur.  The one we took went the long way there. That extra 45 minutes was unwelcome after the longish morning ride from Milan.

We eventually got there and after a short struggle with our GPS map found the exit to the train station going the right direction to our hotel.    It turned out to be an long uphill drag of our luggage..  But the next morning it was a lot quicker as it was downhill all the way!

After we found the Hotel Drei Konig and walked inside only to see a sign saying the front desk was on the 1st floor… ground floor is 0 in Europe..  So the 1st floor is the second floor for us Americans..    And of course the Elevators started on that floor too.  Really?   We drug our luggage up a 20′ high staircase just to check in and board the elevator to our 2nd floor rooms (3rd floor to us)

It had been a long time since breakfast so we rushed out only to find most things closed, but did find one restaurant open.  We practically ran there and got a table.    I had a Pretzel and Bratwurst as you can see in the pictures.  Scott got some sort of sausage with Gold Leaf on top.  It was actual gold leaf, the metal.  (very thin gold)

We went back to the hotel via the long way but finally got there.   By then we were exhausted and got ready to turn the lights out.   Tami texted Kathy about them turning the lights out and at that same moment the church bells from right across the street from our window started going off, loudly..  And it didn’t stop for 12 minutes.  I could not believe what was happening.  I thought they were on some sort of relay system to start ringing them and it got stuck in the on position.  I still don’t know what was going on…

We were out early after having a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel and were able to make the 8:17a  Bernina Express Train to Tirano

Wonderful Ride thru the Swiss Alps and the Italian Alps on the Bernina Express!

At the end of the Alps trip we took a regional train about 30 minutes toward Milan to the small town of Sondrio for the night.  It was a very nice town but our hotel was a ways from the station and of course it was an incline, not steep but you knew you were going uphill.   After checking in we headed out for lunch, it had been a very long time since breakfast in Milan, it was now after 3pm.  Turns out there was a rally going on in the plaza a few meters from our hotel and we ended up getting Great Pizza at a cafe and we ate it outside trying to figure out what was going on in that plaza.    Afterward we took a short nap (wow, who knew naps are fantastic!)   Later that evening I was told to find a spot to eat.  I found a Chinese place within a reasonable walking distance,  it was Sunday so most restaurants were not open in Sondrio (as in most of Italy)

We walk about 3/4 of a mile along the river and find the restaurant.  and that is when the fun began.

It looked like a typical Chinese restaurant with all the hanging do dads  and chopsticks on the tables.   But that’s where the “typical” ended.   Our waitress was from asia, but did not speak a lick of English and the menu was in Italian.   Our Google app was clueless for translations there.   I was confused as the menu read like it was an italian pasta joint.  But it turns out that they did serve Chinese food.   Ravioli turned out to be potstickers.  After that it almost made sense to me.   I was looking for Kung Pow Chicken, but no go on that.  I ended up with some other chicken dish, which was great, but I have no idea what to call it. (and I love Chinese food, not as much as Mexican though)  I tried to order Fried Rice with it, but that didn’t translate for our waitress.   She just kept saying No…    After a bit they started bringing a plate of food randomly.  The first thing that arrived was fried rice… Huh?   Tami said they must have figured out what I wanted and made it.  A bit later my chicken came out and some others food arrived.   Then my White Rice (riso blanca) arrived and I was a bit perplexed.   We all had our food by then but Kathy had nothing at all.

We figured out that Kathy s dish was Fried Rice with Chicken.  You couldn’t tell there was chicken in the fried rice I was eating.  So, I was eating Kathys plate.. Ugh..

At the end we were all still hungry so Kathy and I ordered the Ravioli (potstickers) and Tami and Scott got more food too.

The food was very good, but it was a very different experience getting it.  At the time we had been in Italy for a month.  Although not in such a small town with almost no tourist traffic.

The next morning we headed for the train station, again, all downhill.. YES!  and road a regional train to Milan Centrale that went along Lake Como for at least 30 miles.   In Milan Centrale we headed to the 5 Guys for a burger and Fries,  The first and last time I had been to a 5 guys was after working at our CoLo in Ashburn Va, I drove up to NYC and stopped at one on the way.   Lots of Fries,  I remember being astonished back then.   This time was very similar.  Our travel companions were well versed in 5 Guy Speak so we learned some of the secrets.    After that we boarded a Frecca to Verona.  (ETR 700 train)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arrived early morning at the Genoa Principe Train station and as we headed out toward the taxi stand the clouds let loose with a torrent of rain.  We walked back in and bought 4 Cafe  Americano’s (American coffee) and sat down to wait it out.  By the time we finished the rain had stopped and we went back out looking for the taxi stand.  Was a bit of a wait, it was Easter morning and I guess they were all in church.   We ended up taking two taxis as they were very small, barely got 2 of us and our luggage in the first one.   We arrived at the apartment and it looked good from the outside, much better than the others, except maybe the one in Florence. (once we found the front door)

After a bit we finally got a hold of the landlord and she let us in remotely thru the outside door to the lobby.  We had a modern looking elevator here, but very small.  4 people without luggage, but only 2 with.   The sent us a code to unlock the key box mounted on the front door so we could get into the apartment.

So far its the largest and nicest one.   And I checked  out the locking mechanism on the front door, i looked like the vault door to a bank.  Lots of round steel bars protrude out when you turn the key a few times.   Its going to take a lot to break down that door!!  The exact opposite of our Florence apartment door.  Which looked like if you leaned on it from the outside it would open.

The apartment turned out to be the nicest so far, very large.   A large kitchen with a couch and the heat came on when needed.  Something that really hadn’t occurred at any other place so far.

It was filled with IKEA like furniture, which was some pretty uncomfortable stuff when used.   Our bed had plastic legs and one of them folded over early one morning.  I had to put on my engineering hat, not the Casey Jones one, but the other.   I ended up removing both of them and replaced them with two upside down buckets i found at a shop down the road for 5 euros each.

 

We took off and headed out for gelatto and to check out the San Lorenzo Basilica.   The gelatto was grand and so was the church.  I took a video inside the church so I could hear the pipe organ,  that was a pretty awesome sound in there.   And also of a bell tower with ringing bells that I was able to capture them being rung on video.  It was very nice sounding and being able to see them being rung was a great experience.

We met up with Tami and Scott in the Piazza Ferrari and walked down a large shopping boulevard that would almost be a mall, at least it seemed like we were in a mall, but a very old one with new chic tenants.   Once we got down to the bottom of the street we decided not to walk back up and hopped on a bus.  Turns out you need an app to buy tickets,  its not like other cities bus lines allowing us just to tap our credit card when hopping on.   The app was ATS Genova, turns out its similar in Milan with the ATS Milano app.   We took that to a stop not far from our apartment.

We are staying in the old area of town, with extremely narrow streets, some of them only 4′ wide.   I heard a comment about how a ambulance would get in there.   The next day we went out for lunch and afterward I wanted to see a Funicular, there are a bunch of them in Genoa but it seemed all but one was closed.  (possibly due to gondola accident in Naples a few days before, but we don’t know if that’s why)

The funicular that was open took us up about 300′ in elevation.  Then across the street was something else that looked like another one, but it was a very long walking tunnel that went to an elevator that took us up at least anther 300′ higher.    I turned the wrong way coming out and we didn’t get to see anything.  Turns out there was a great viewpoint overlooking the city in the other direction and also another old church but do to unpopular demand we never got there.   On the way back down I spotted another one practically across the street from the one we were coming down, but it turned out that one was just another elevator down a short walking tunnel.   This was a much nicer elevator and it dropped us off at a different scenic overlook.  Took some pics and headed back down and home.

On the way back I stopped at the Pizza place behind our apartment and had a slice of “focaccia al formaggio”  It tasted amazing, it was like nothing I have ever had before.   I knew after that I was coming back for dinner before we left Genova.

The last night we were there we tried to go to a nicer restaurant but it turned out, after a longish walk it was full.  But we did get to have great Gelatto on the way there.     After the full restaurant,  I ended up getting to go to that best pizza joint in town, which was right behind our apartment.  (I had been closed the first two days we were in Genoa).