Our Days in Genoa

Day 1 - Wednesday (evening)

Our visit to Genoa began with a wonderful dinner at Tralalero, a Genovese trattoria next to our hotel. We were served traditional foods such as Focaccia, Trofie al Pesto, and a lot of fish (among other things).  The hotel was called Hotel Continental, and the views from some of the rooms were fantastic. In particular, Dr. Fink had a great view of the Christopher Columbus statue just outside of the Piazza Principe train station!

Day 2 - Thursday 

This day began with us taking a cheesy tourist group picture in front of the aforementioned Christopher Columbus statue, where we all wore OWU t-shirts and two of us held copies of the Columbus Dispatch, in hopes of inclusion in the Hello Columbus section of the paper.  After that, we boarded the train for Santa Margherita Ligure, which is a beautiful town outside of Genoa on the Mediterranean coast.  From here, many of us walked the 3+ miles to Portofino, one of the fanciest seaside towns on the coast.  From the blue-green water, incredible vistas, and major league yachts, fancy is no overstatement.  The students stayed in groups and explored the area, and we all headed back to the hotel by 8:30 or so.

Day 3 - Friday

Just before the trip, we were invited to attend a Mediterranean Diet conference on this day.  So, we got up and met Martina and Ilaria, a dietician and student, respectively, from the University of Genoa dietetics program.  They led us to the Marco Polo institute, which is a high-school focused on preparing students for careers in tourism, culinary arts, and other similar fields.  The conference was a blend of researchers from the University of Florence and the University of Genoa (talking about the health impact of the Mediterranean Diet, the anthropology of the Ligurian (regional) cuisine, and the botany of the Ligurian cuisine, respectively).  After the conference, the culinary and other service students prepared a Mediterranean / Ligurian lunch, complete with 4 courses - and talked about the preparation, ingredients, and nutritional content of the foods.  Some of the students from the school also translated for our students, but it was a bit noisy and we were shushed more than a few times.  It was interesting, if a little unorganized. 

Something we haven't mentioned thus far is that illness has been having a bit of an impact on our group.  We have had a few students come down with a stomach bug, and we've even had a doctor visit one of the hotel rooms.  We're holding our own though, and finding safe foods and medicines to help in the navigation of this.  Dr. Fink also had some things stolen from his room, so he got a chance to visit the local police station on this day as well.  So, we're finding ways to navigate our challenges and have a great trip in spite of these bumps!

Day 4 - Saturday

Today we started at Mercato Orientale, which is the largest market in Genoa.  It is not anywhere near the size of the Porta Palazzo market in Turin, but is still packed with fresh meats, seafood, vegetables, spices, cheeses, breads, sweets, and even home goods.  The students are quick to note the differences in comfort with how meat is displayed, as it is not uncommon to see faces, teeth, organs, and eyes still on the animal of origin in the case.  

After our market visit, the students had free time to explore Genoa.  Several visited the famous aquarium, and others wandered the various streets, alleys, and narrow paths (called caruggi in Genovese dialect).  Some of the students went along with Davide (Tucker's Italian alter-ego) in search of the perfect pair of Italian shoes.  After a lot of stops, he finally found some -- and the girls gave him endless grief about the search.  In other shopping news - scarves have been a huge hit with this group.  We are pushing about 30 scarves purchased thus far, and some have not yet found one.  So, if you're reading this and you're a family member of one of the group members, there may be a scarf in your future.  No guarantees, but the odds are good!  

Day 5 - Sunday

The old port in Genoa has also been the site of a number of festivals and activities, including a sport festival - and this morning we left the hotel around 9am to check out the excitement.    We walked around, found a market (more scarves!, and shopped at Eataly Genoa.  The students chose foods that were lunch worthy (foccaccia!) and we ate outside looking at the port before heading back to the hotel to hop on a bus to Perugia.  We also said our goodbyes to Tania, who was so helpful in organizing much of the activity through this first 2/3 of the trip, and gave her a present of some Ohio-made goods to remember us by.  Ciao, Genova!

We will post pictures of our days in Genoa in the next few days.  We'll probably do a separate post with pictures from Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino because of how many we took during that day!