olga@italy: GENOA

[olga]

It's time for the Grande Finale! Genoa is one of the most intriguing and amazing cities I've ever been to. I highly recommend anyone who likes big, diverse and a bit ruff cities to go there.

I'm too lazy to comment each pic, but among other things you'll see a jelly-fish at the largest aquarium in Europe, Italians watching the world cup game against Australia when Totti scored the penalty in the 90th minute, a man with artificial legs resting on a bench, a Renzo Piano-structure in the harbour and a very colorful cannoli.

You can see a larger version of the pics at PBase. (http://www.pbase.com/olgas/genoa)

http://img473.imageshack.us/img473/1328/genoa01.jpg

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[ringil]

awesome! Never been to Genoa but it looks great. A mixture between Monaco and hmm....Florence?. Going to Turin and Ligurian region on sunday, might have time to visit it :cool:

[one very bored guy]

Genoa is an amazing city, thanks for the photos

[mczamalek]

Nice set, Olga! I was there last year- beautiful city.
But kinda sad to see all the references to 'Colombo'- who historians are quite sure wasn't Genovian at all, rather Catalan- and possibly Jewish.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Yet another fantastic set!

Someday I'll get to Europe. :(

[mczamalek]

^wait.....you've never been to Europe, James Bond?

Good Lord!

[KevinFromTexas]

Awesome.

They wait, Olga waits. You can cut the tension with a boiled spaghetti noodle.
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/673/genoa43.jpg

They are rewarded, and Olga is rewarded! :haha:
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/223/genoa46.jpg

And this is a really cool shot.
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/236/genoa60.jpg


Great pics as usual, Olga, thanks!

[ExpatADAM]

HOLY CANNOLI!!! Thanks very much, Olga. Brilliant as usual! Gotta get down to Genoa really soon, I think!

[AJW]

Wow, fantastic pics! Nice variation in detail and cityscapes. Were you there during the world cup?

*edit* Oops. You already said so in your first post.

[ItsConanOBrien]

Looks amazing!

[staff]

Genoa has always had a special place in my heart. Been there several times.
Lovely, olga.

[hkskyline]

Beautiful.

[joeindt]

That was fun! I can't wait for your next trip. :)

[Ex-Ithacan]

Niiiice. Blue collar - Italian style.

Aayyy

http://www.indcjournal.com/archives/fonz.jpg


Thanks Olga:)

[Tom In Chicago]

Great photos!!!

[Agent Orange]

Even better than I had imagined, olga. After Venice, this is the city I most want to visit in Italy. An aquaintance of mine from childhood was from Genoa and I'd always wondered what it was like. This is the best exposée of the city I've seen. It seems to have retained its authentic charm without becoming an all out tourist mecca.

[MSPtoMKE]

Awsome photos, olga! I was in Genoa for about an hour between trains and we walked from the station to the harbor, but I'd love to actually explore it sometime.

[Frank 77]

super pix... I ' ve always loved those Big port cities with their very own charme. My favs are Marseille , Genoa and Hamburg !!!:tup:

[JManc]

great eye!

[SHiRO]

Great pics!

[Alemaria]

Great picture, you certainly captured that this city has tons of character.

I love port cities.

[ChrisLA]

Its about time someone did a more extensive tour of this city. Its really the only big city in Italy I've ever been to. We drove over from Nice, France on one of our weekends off from job training. I still have the wine I bought in some ghetto neighborhood and smuggled past US customs in my kitchen. I think the limit from what I was told is two bottles, but I came back with a lot more than that.

Anyway I love the photos, I really like the historical buildings, and the fountains. My take on this city was its not as clean or as well kept as the other cities I've been to in western europe. Me and my colleagues came from different centers from all over the world and so some of them ask the locals what to check out in Genoa. Their advice was go down to the port. I wasn't too keen on this because from my experience most cities ports aren't in the nicest parts of town. As we drove for what seems like miles, I noticed the area was getting more gritty. I did see some beautiful areas along the seashore with crashing waves and outdoor cafes, and beautiful views of the water.

S I was in the minority in my wishes to stop and check out these areas, I had to go along with the group. We had all agreed to stick together since none of us had ever been there. Well let me say we ended up in the middle of a courtyard of thousands of pedestrians eye balling us because we are in cars in area where no vehicles are suppose to be. We then had to have a chat the the Italian police. Thank god one of the guys in my car who was Egyptian was able to speak Italian. I suspect the conversation wasn't pleasant because he made a comment afterwards cut woulnt' tell me exactly what they said. The police ended up holding back thousands of pedestrians so we can turn around and drive back up some very narrow walk way to get back on the main street.

Well at this point since I was the oldest (32 years old) I took the lead and made the others follow me. I ended up running every traffic light down to the port. Why because I didn't see them, but I made it without a scratch.

We finally make it to the port and I swear I thought I was in either the south Bronx, or some parts of Mexico. It was dirty, and we saw drug dealers everywhere. Still we got out and walked around, and I shopped for wine to take back to the USA. All and all I enjoyed my visit and would visit again. It was fun, and I've never seen people drive as aggressive as they did in Italy. It was worst than Mexico, or New York City.

PS: I noticed the city seem to have had some diversity, well at least I noticed a lot of Africans in the port area. It was cool to here black people speaking Italian.

[Upward]

Great pics! :tup: I'm off to view the larger versions on pBase.

[Monetto]

Olga always gets to go to cool places. I dream of Italy now...

[olga]

Thanks again for nice comments! :)


It seems to have retained its authentic charm without becoming an all out tourist mecca.
Authentic and genuine are words I can use to express why I liked this city so much. It felt like a real, living city. And you're right - it was not at all an touristy place. For example, the hotel prices were very reasonable.

@chrisla: :haha: Wow, what a story! Next time - don't take the car! The quarters by the harbour are more dirty and decayed than other western european cities. That's one of the reason this city was so intriguing. There's this huge medieval city centre, and unlike most other preserved city centres of that age in Europe, it is not at all put in good order, it's not touristy and picturesque. Instead there are drug dealers and whores and it smells like the middle ages... (OK, not everywhere, but in some parts, in the darkest alleys).

[Stu]

Great pics, as usual. I knew next to nothing about Genoa.

[BXC]

Wonderful photos, Olga. Here's a nice gallery of this fascinating city, with some of its landmarks: http://flickr.com/photos/cienne/sets/1820423/

[gripja]

Nice tour Olga. I've Northern Italian in my blood and now I know why I love the grit of NYC :)

[BXC]

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/3498/genoa73.jpg

The interior looks so incongruous.

(This thread just deserves to be bumped.)

[fangorangutang]

Fascinating city, and great pics! Although I've never been there, I suspect you really captured the true character of the city and its people.

[olga]

(This thread just deserves to be bumped.)

Well - thank you! :) I think so too, Genoa is such an amazing city - I want the whole world to see these pics! :D

[BXC]

I was dreaming of returning to Venice but, after seeing these pictures, decided to postpone that trip and discover Genoa instead. Quite a surprise - and a typical case of good travel photos inciting someone to follow the one who took them.

[Paintballer1708]

Its nice to see an Italian city with a skyline. I believe one of the only other two are Naples and Milan.

[myord]

This old port is really amazing. I got to compliment you again Olga: Great photos, honestly.:cheers: And kinda small-ish.

[Sacto]

Beee-a-utiful city indeed. Thanks for sharing!

[staff]

Bumpbumpbumpbumpbump bump bumpbumpbump bumpbump (Switch Remix).

Spank Rock.


By the way. I remember riding in the car with my family on that elevated freeway in the harbour when I was, like, 8 years old. In my memory it looked like we were 100 meters above the sea. :)

[boden]

:tup: :tup: :tup:

[DLLB]

Great pictures Olga. It does indeed look like a very interesting place to visit.

[Evergrey]

what a fabulous vacation... there is such character in these photographs... and the food looks delectable

[olga]

Whoa, thanks for the bump! It was nice to see those ol pics again after several months.

Soon there's a couple of new olga@italy-threads coming up, with pics from my trip to Rome last week.

[Cory]

Beautiful

[HomeInMyShoes]

Amazingly varied. You take such nice, honest, relatable pictures.

[olga]

Amazingly varied. You take such nice, honest, relatable pictures.

That's a very nice remark - thank you! :)

[LSyd]

great pics as usual. how'd i miss this for 7 months?

-

[M II A II R II K]

That was definitely an enriching tour with enriching architecture.

[Chelsea Spy]

great to see this thread - wonderful pictures - Italian cities are by far my favourite and Genoa is one of the few I've never been to - thanks for resurrecting these pictures!!

[olga]

^You have to go to Genoa, Chelsea Spy! It's such a fantastic city - my favorite among the Italian cities I've been to.

Thanks for the bump, nice to see these old pics again!

[ColDayMan]

Awesome!!!