Genova I Love You

Sorry for the delay in updates. I've been a little over indulgent lately, what can I say. Following Brocks tourist diatribe the last post, I've decided to start paying a little more attention to the online world while we're away

First things first, I'll answer the question that I know is on everyone's mind. Yes. Carly Rae Jepson is a big deal here. Her terribly annoying song has made it across the world and is tormenting the minds of Italians everywhere.

So, we've arrived in Genova. Actually, we're leaving tomorrow. It is our third day here and it has been fabulous.

After the onslaught of tourists and the utterly un-Italian first impression of Italy, Genova has been a welcome break. Our experience in Venice was at once, exactly what I had expected while still being such a flippin' pain. I don't want to complain - we're loving our stay in Italy. But Venice is not for us.

Genova is a port town, built on a hill and one of the more amazing Italian towns I've had the pleasure of visiting. It's truly beautiful here. It also reeks of piss and is dirty as H-E-double-hockey-sticks but beautiful none the less.

It is also cheap. Or maybe it's just normal. But compared to Venice, we are living like kings. Our hotel is gorgeous and the least expensive of our trip as we booked it through Expedia. The service has been incredible, the room is beautiful and the hotel is gorgeous. I'm sure everyone here is well aware we booked through Expedia as we trek through with our back sacks and groceries, emptying the fridge of expensive mini-booze to fill with deli cheese. But whatevs. We love it.

Our first day here we visited the Aquarium. We had originally planned to stay in Cinque Terre but when we saw the Aquarium, I was sold. Because I LOVE AQUARIUMS. It's the second largest in Europe, after the amazing aquarium in Lisbon, and it was everything I had hoped for.

So I'll end this post with a couple pictures of fish and that should keep you on the up and up until I return tomorrow. Because, I will, return tomorrow.

Tourist Central

Ashley on the water bus in Venice drinking a watermelon smoothie... being a tourist... in the background there are several Russian, Chinese, Japanese and American children wail crying...  only one local was riding this boat... he was the driver... no doubt dreaming about crashing into a wall and killing us all.

After we departed the tourist boat we stopped at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum... she was also a tourist with a fancy modern art collection... the house was beautiful... and so were the gardens... she had more money than the average tourist.

Every few minutes a water bus would go by rammed with tourists... floating down the smelly river.

Ashley in a tourist free zone... being a tourist.

Around every corner there is a beautiful church full of tourists.

The tourists above now have hepatitis c from walking in flooded San Marco Square... this is the same water in the dirty river which I later urinated in... bad tourist!

This is me trying to digest the bad tourist food I just ate... Ashley got food poisoning from this fine establishment... proving that Italy does have bad pizza exclusively for tourists.

Waiting in line for San Marco Basilica with the other tourists.

Tourist tower in San Marco Square.

At this point I wanted to kill a tourist so our lovely front desk man recommended a restaurant in the quiet jewish quarter... it was lovely to be the only tourists there.

These stands are every ten feet in Venice selling the same crap... I officially hate those masks... only tourists buy them.

We started drinking at a tourist pub... met two lovely Toronto ladies... we were clearly drawn to each other... and had a blast... we closed the bar and bought several bottles of wine and drank them on the edge of the river... that night I drank two bottles of wine... seven pints of beer... and some of that wine was shamelessly mixed with coke.

We didn't eat those hot dogs... that's what you call tourist food... just three bottles of your cheapest tourist wine please.

This was the last picture we took before the Polizia (Police) showed up... apparently four Canadian drunks can get a little loud after all those drinks... we saw a giant rat... I peed in the river... the little police man caught one of the girls peeing in the alley... we're charming tourists... nobody was charged... he even let us finish the wine... no doubt he's used to drunken tourists.

The next day we took a five hour train ride to Genova both of us with a cheap wine hangover... it's beautiful here... I'm glad to get away from the tourists and be sitting here in a deluxe hotel room looking out on a square full of palm trees... eating cheese and tomatoes that taste like heaven... and once again drinking a beer... hair of the dog/tourist.