Italia Round Due

After our brief touch down in Aix, we were back on the road heading even further south. Immediately after my Anthropology exam, the three of us rented a car and drove to Genoa.

The greatest part about driving in Europe is how well everything is marked (I'm actually being serious for once). You can literally just hop on any highway, and of you're at least somewhat familiar with geography, you can follow the signs and wind up exactly where you want to be.

So with no GPS, no Mapquest directions, and no Internet connection, we hopped on the highway in Aix, followed signs for Nice which turned into signs for "Gênes" (Genoa, in French), and then followed signs for the city center. It was really that simple.

When we got into Genoa, I finally learned how much knowing French helps when it comes to understanding other languages. 

For some reason, I was voted information-seeker on our trip to Italy - even though I don't know ANY Italian...

Anyway, I asked these men at a car shop to give us directions to our hotel, and even though every single word was in Italian, I somehow understood him perfectly. It was insane! 

So, flawlessly, we made it to our hotel and went down to the port for dinner. We walked through this narrow hilly street and wound up in a little beachy alcove littered with gelato shops, bars, and restaurants. We decided on this little restaurant right down an alleyway from the beach and took our seats. One thing my mom and grandma noticed was how much Italians care to please you. Our server went through the entire menu and translated it to us - explaining what every dish was. Then she suggested a wine - from the region, of course - and even checked up on us after our food had come out! That's pretty much unheard of in France.

Already, Italy was off to a good start for the two older generations.

Me and Grammy on our way to dinner in Genoa!

The next day, we woke up early and headed to Cinque Terre! 

Cinque Terre translates to mean "Five Earths" which is exactly what it is. It's five little villages tucked up in alcoves in the seaside of the Mediterranean. You can either walk between the five of them, take the train, or you can take the ferry. We decided on the latter, and I'm so glad we did. The view from the water could not have been beat. All of the buildings are various shades of pink, red, orange and yellow. It wouldn't have been the same if we couldn't have seen them from the water. 

On the Ferry to Cinque Terre!

First sightings!

The camera didn't do a very good job of capturing the color, unfortunately

One of the Cinque Terre!

On the last "earth", we hopped off the ferry and grabbed some pizza to bring back with us on our return, and then the ferry brought us back to the port and we headed off to Florence!

À bientôt!