This City ...

I experience every emotion here in Genova. I'm sure of it.

After a terrible night, a story too long to tell, I woke tired and wondered if I could put myself back together for the day ahead but I did.  Of course I did.

I was meeting Stefano, a good friend to me.  He had introduced me to a rather remarkable man some time ago and I had asked if I might return and interview Mr Giovanni Grasso Fravega for my book.

It was agreed and I have just spent the most delightful couple of hours with both men, asking my questions, having them translated, and listening ... wishing, as always, that I had learned Italian by now.

Giovanni Grasso Fravego is a gifted artist, with a career that spans decades, but he is also a man with a rather impressive historical knowledge of Genova.  I look forward to working with his words.  I took photographs too, as he has an exhibition there in the studio he shares with Pier Canosa.

Afterwards, Stefano took me over to the top of the highest building in Genova where I was able to take photographs of the city spread out before me.  It was stunning!  It's another clear blue-sky day here.

Then to lunch at one of the many delightful restaurants here in the city.  I don't have the name but the food was delicious.  I enjoyed a pasta dish, containing a sprinkling of dried and grated unmentionable parts of tuna, preceded by a plate of fried anchovies.

Sometimes I have I no idea how to ease myself back into the world after hours spent like this however there are photographs to edit and a recorded interview to organise. 

To give you a sense of today, here in Genova ... a first glimpse. 

On Allergies And Things

I woke at 6am, knowing I needed to finish my marketing assignment today.  It's bigger and more complex  than I expected but already I see the beauty and sense of what it is teaching me.

This course is all about authentically marketing your business.  It's not about bluff, bluster, or exaggeration.  It's about telling your story and telling it true.  But it's challenging.  It's demanding.  I like it.

If you were to watch the video of me writing this post, you might be tempted to send it viral.  I'm not sure but I think it might be amusing.  I woke at 6am, sneezing.  Nose running like a river in flood.  It's this thing that I do here in Genova sometimes. A small allergy I suspect but no, no anti-histamines thank you very much.

There is a mountain of paper kitchen towels next to me here.  I stop to sneeze 3 or 4  times every few minutes.   Then continue ... writing, finding the photograph.  Concentrating. Sneezing, blowing my nose.  Typing.  Laughing at myself as I became aware of the scene.

It looks like another blue sky day outside my window and Stefano's Righicam promises 12 celsius today. I will write and that's not to be sneezed at ...  because yesterday I was formally introduced to the Tramontana Scura.  The dark north wind.  It was cold and rained periodically.

This morning the sun has already turned the building down by Porta Soprana a pale gold.  My camera may come with me when I go out in search of that first espresso.  The light here, in this city of soft golds through into orange, is often divine but it's not simple to find.  You have to hunt for it. To allow for the fact that the narrow carrugio sometimes only see the midday sun. It is a city of mystery.  A maze of a city.

Rain and Reflections, Genova

It's raining today in Genova but even the rain creates rather exquisite photographic opportunities.

When there's rain here the puddles that form on the tiled sidewalks create beautiful reflections.  It seems like another world down at my feet.

I have been wandering, delighted to find that Caffè degli Specchi has reopened in my absence. I stopped in for an espresso.  Wandering on, I caught up with Francesca and bought pasta while there. 

It's wet and it's little cold here in the city but still beautiful. 

Settling in ...

I feel like a cat or a dog, turning this way and that, making my sleeping place comfortable before I settle down.

It's like that when I arrive here in Genova.  I come without language. I usually arrive alone.  And it's rare that things go smoothly for me.  There's always an incident.  I walk cautiously in these first days, breathing the air and loving the fact I am back, while settling into a new rhythm and way of being.

Since I was small I have had to leave.  I seem to be nervous about getting too comfortable and, in doing so, rendering myself unable to leave.  I like to leave.  As much as I hate it and regret the fact of another journey in the hours before flying.  It's an odd thing inside of me but it's always been like that and so ... I leave sometimes.

There's an exhilaration once I'm out.  And it's the same whether I escape on a bike, in a car, bus or plane.  It must be past life stuff, mustn't it?  I've been escaping since I could first climb the gate. And my parents were actually really lovely.  My childhood was normal.

I'm a chicken though.  Don't mistake me for brave. I am cautious.  I guess I am one of those creatures who feel the fear and do it anyway.  And I love being out here.  Sometimes retrospectively.  Cairo was like that.  I cannot tell you how glad I was to take my seat on that plane back to Belgium.  Cairo was really out there for me. I was staying in a local area, no tourists.  And it was a peaceful, non-threatening chaos.  There was only one mean taxi driver and you get them anywhere.  

My hotel was special, with padlocked chains on the fire escape upstairs, and 2 floors of apartments where the stairwell was sealed off so you couldn't walk down levels two and three.  The elevator and jumping from my 5th floor balcony were the only ways down in a fire.  The mosquitoes bit me and I decided to tough it out, slightly worried about the fact I was a mere kilometre from the Nile.  Did this mean malaria was a possibility.

Later I found it was a possibility and I should have gone to a pharmacy however that was one of those times when I gave myself a good talking to and did nothing.

But mostly, once I'm on my way, I'm the happiest creature in the world.  Although there is some tension.  Obviously.  I travel light financially.  That has caused me some potentially interesting moments but I think I have an angel or someone who watches out for me.  Maybe it's mum.  There's always enough for the 10euro airport bus home. 

I live simply but intensely.  Tonight I had my traditional Napoli pizza for dinner, the one with anchovies ... the pizza  that tells me I have really arrived.  Red wine washes it down.  I've only been here 24 hours but have already talked with some interesting people.   Genova's like that.  They all tell me that they are closed to outsiders and quite conventional meanwhile I have nothing but respect for them.  I like how they are and I appreciate any kindess that comes my way.  And there has been so much kindess.  It means more somehow.  You have to earn it.

So, the first 24 hours is done.  I was out and wandering today.  The rain stopped and we were gifted one of those divine deep-blue sky days that I associate with Genova.  I wandered all over the city and it was 2pm before I questioned how strangely dizzy I was feeling.  I hadn't eaten.  Just an espresso for breakfast and a slice of focaccia that the artists on Via San Lorenzo shared with me.

I forget to eat here. Anyway, I loved the name on this sign.  I was up in an ancient part of the city ... which is saying something when people have lived here for 2,000 years or more.

On Loving Genova ...

I arrived in Genova yesterday, ran my errands, and returned to the apartment just as the heavens opened. And I've been told there is more due tomorrow but today ... today is superb. 

The sky is the deepest blue. It was already 9 celsius when I headed out in search of my first espresso at 10am.  It's so very good to be back. 

I slept 11 hours last night.  6 hours is normal for me.  I need to  go outside again, just to be out in it all.  I wanted to download a series of puddle reflection photographs I just took.  See ... La Superba still is really.

Back in Genova

I woke to the alarm at 5.45am.  We were out the door by 6.40am.  The airport bus, the flight (1 hour 20 minutes), then another airport bus in Milan, and the train through the hills to Genova.  It's been a day but I love traveling.

I was lucky.  There was no rain as I walked along Via XX Settembre from Brignole Station.  I arrived, turned on the gas and heating, changed into more appropriate clothes and then was out again. Hunter-gathering.

It's good to be back in Genova. I love this city, so very much.

My USB modem is loaded to go for a month.  I have red wine, sparkling water, and not too much else at the moment.  I was counting on my favourite pizzeria being open tonight but it's almost 6.30pm and there's nothing happening there yet. 

It's pouring down here but that doesn't matter.  I've always loved rain.  When I lived in Istanbul people would call out compliments to me when it rained.  I sparkle in the rain but it's not surprising, given that I grew up in Dunedin and loved living in Fiordland later.  Rain is that thing that happens in those places.  Excessively at times.

So I have arrived.   Now, to start on the work that I came here to do.