Oh no…. just seen on Twitter that Rafa is out of Wimbledon! 🙁 Will it be a Federer/Murray final I wonder?
We have got to know Genoa pretty well today. It is not a large city and the network of narrow streets in the old part can be covered pretty well in a day… nothing is very far away.
We took our croissant and pastry in a cafe in Garibaldi Street which is one of the main pedestrian arteries we got to know quite well as our hostel was in a street just off it. We had a little errand to run after breakfast and that was to go back to a hardware shop we had seen to buy Duck Tape. Duck Tape? you may ask…. Dot”s hold all wheelie had come apart at the seams and she needed to do a major repair job on it before it got chucked into the aeroplane tomorrow. Repair job pictured here. We thought the hardware shop was tiny until we tried to access it and had to go seven doorways along the street to get in. We found that the store ran all along the back of several smaller stores in front.
Before we knew it, it was time for our lunch! Nearly all eating and drinking in Italy with the regular gelato thrown in.
Most shops in Italy close between 1 and 4pm for siesta. Quite understandably in this sort of heat… all you really want to do is be in the cool and go to sleep after lunch. However, after 4 o’clock the city comes alive… what seemed like dark dead shuttered little back streets are suddenly full of shops we never knew were there, with people scurrying everywhere, teeming with activity.
Today we had decided, as we were in the city, to go shopping and just indulge in looking, trying on and perhaps buying clothes. There were so many clothes shops which were like little boutiques and really not too expensive, and all full of lovely light summery loose-fitting tops and dresses. We also walked down the Oxford Street of Genoa which is called Via XX Settembre.
We bought one or two things and then just sat in a piazza with our final Prosecco accompanied by a whole board of tasty cheeses, olives and little things on sticks.
This is my last posting of my European adventure. It seems like months ago when I set out for Nice, not just 5 weeks. I have packed so much in, seen so many interesting places and met some lovely people along the way.
Thank you for your comments on the blog which are always encouraging, as I’m usually trying to keep this up to date late at night or in the early morning. I fly back to Gatwick direct from Genoa in the morning. Goodbye euro hello pound!
Just to say I have to add an addendum to my blog so there will be a final page for the return journey…. look out for it!
