We wandered out into our small pocket-sized garden after dinner and read until 10pm. It's been hot here. We have summer. It's for sure now.
There's even talk of 31 celsius at the weekend. We have a BBQ to attend, a birthday party too. Oh, and the monthly expedition for supplies.
But anyway, the garden ...
Note of caution, based on what I read in Gert's mind ... if you want peace and tranquility, best not take a photographer.
Maybe we refuse to acknowledge our common origins because racism causes amnesia, or because we find it unbelievable that in those days long past the entire world was our kingdom, an immense map without borders, and our legs were the only passport required.
Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors - Stories of Almost Everyone.
Re-entry is always difficult. My life in Genova is so different to the life I live here in Antwerp. And being house-keeper in this quirky little Belgian house means settling back into that domestic life of cleaning and cooking and taking care of people.
It's also about me creating a space that I like to spend time in and so there are peonies in the big vase downstairs ... my laundry is done, the floors have been cleaned, bread was baked, meals cooked. The transition is complete, I am a housewife and all kinds of other things too, again.
I've done a couple of school-runs with Miss 9 (almost Miss 10), we're on a countdown to her fourth of July birthday. And one of those school-runs involved a much-needed detour to my place of worship and peace ... De Slegte. I found treasure, of course.
Eduardo Galeano's book, Mirrors - Stories of Almost Everyone, was my tram-companion today. I love that man's humour. His intelligence more than anything but the way that he writes is rather exquisite. I heard him interviewed a while back and thought, 'Hmmmm'.
I have a copy of his Children of the Days too.
In other news, in news from Genova ... Giovanni is a friend I met long-ago via the internet. Raised in Milan, he moved to New Zealand some years ago with his wife, and it is from there that he too writes the most marvelous things.
You can imagine, it's rare that we find ourselves in the same country at the same time. Until this last visit he was always in Italy when I wasn't however we did catch up back in 2010, when I was at home in New Zealand. And this time the gods of travel allowed us a small meeting.
He arrived in Genova last Sunday and we met in Piazza De Ferrari. The antiques market was still on and it was fun to wander with him, hearing his stories of this thing and that.
I was obviously beyond temptation having purchased the beautiful shawl. (Actually I reached home with about 2euro in change in my pocket. This is my traveling life, the common story of Di wandering... New Zealand to Istanbul being the most disturbingly close-call of all).
Giovanni and I lunched, we caught up on stories and then, that evening we were able to join Barbara, Donatella, Luciano, and friends of theirs, for aperitivo out in the city. It was so much fun. But that's Genova to me ... aka La Superba.
My airline had contacted me that afternoon and so there was the scramble as I worked to get ready to leave a day earlier than I had planned. Gert has since expressed bemused surprise that he made that mistake while booking for me. We never make these mistakes and, while it was a situation that made me laugh, there was so much I was leaving until that last day in the city.
Mmmm, children, don't leave everything until the last moment.
Anyway, I left Giovanni in the city on the Monday, as he wandered there before he headed off along the exquisite Ligurian coastline. And I gifted my wine and Monday-food to Barbara, then left. It was over again.
And below ... a photograph I took of Giovanni as we said our goodbyes until next time we find ourselves in the same country again. 
Today, at the monthly antiques market here in Genova, I met the most marvelous man and he sold me this 'most divine thing'.
I wasn't shopping. I was actually accompanying Outi as she shopped however ... this happened. This beautiful shawl that I couldn't resist and believe me, I can resist most things, but this hit me in my girly soul.
I wasn't bartering, I really didn't have the money. Unfortunately most people assume I'm bargaining. It used to happen in Istanbul too. The lovely bloke selling this dropped to a price that was simply superb and so yes, I'm walking to catch my plane in Milan on Tuesday ...
But no, really, the Belgian bloke is bailing me out. Thankfully. I broke into a sweat confessing. I love this shawl that much though ... and I'm not sure I captured it here as it's silky and heavy and completely luxurious. But anyway, you get an idea.
It's raining this morning and so I've stayed at the apartment, with plans to meet friends later. But even when it rains, I find this city beautiful. Reflections appear in puddles on footpaths all over the city.
I have developed a new and terrible habit. I wake about 8am, open the door to the small balcony, climb back into bed and sleep again ... as late as 11am that first time. It's bliss. I'm an early-rising creature and find it easy to wake and begin a day.
Not so here. I have become a sloth. Quite the delighted sloth. It won't last. It's only that I'm walking all over the place and talking to so many interesting people. And I have Donatella and Luciano's cd playing.
But staying in on a Saturday morning in Genova ... you can see why in the photograph below. The space where I work is an easy place to be.
Thank you, Air B&B. I can't recommend them highly enough. My cousin, Julie, introduced me to them and we stayed in them in Verona, Croatia, Budapest, Austria, and Lake Como last summer. You get to meet interesting locals and live in local homes.
My bedroom/office space in this beautiful apartment, downtown Genova.
Hmmm, which order shall I post them in ... the photograph or my favourite music playlist?
The playlist:
Alexi Murdoch - Breathe (it reminds me I must)
Fabrizio De Andre - Creuza di Ma (because it takes me back to Genova, everysingle time)
Amos Lee - Arms of a Woman (love the sound)
Ben Howard - Old Pine (just love, so much)
Brian Eno - By this River (from a movie, it haunted me)
Counting Crows - Sullivan Street (there has to be at least one, of these guys or REM)
David Gray - The One I Love (somehow this one slipped in. It wakes me up if I'm concentrating too deeply.
LP - Into the Wild (just simply love and adore)
Marc Cohen - Ellis Island (an old favourite)
Missy Higgins - Everyone's Waiting (love and adore)
Passenger - Let Her Go (new big love)
Sarah McLachlan - Angel (old love, and it reminds me of Pippa singing it beautifully)
Van Morrison - Into the Mystic (hunted this song down and fell for Van Morrison as a result. Loved 'The Newsroom' too)
Yo La Tengo - Green Arrow (brilliant beautiful exquisite)
Zucchero - Dune Mosse (i enjoy Zucchero)
Paul Kelly - Midnight Rain (possibly my most favourite song ever but on his cd, it opens with heavy rain. I love songs that include heavy rain, like we used to have back in Fiordland, NZ)
So this is it for now. There are more I need to add but it meets my needs for now.
And the photograph ... Genova, of course.
Curled up on my borrowed bed in this magnificent Genovese apartment, top floor, listening to my small music playlist of absolute favourite songs ... the ones that I always play. I should post that list one day, so you can throw your hands up in horror perhaps, but these are the ones that I listen to, over and over, making sharing an office space with me all but impossible.
Or so I've been told.
I have lived more quietly today. The result of one of my allergy/anxiety attacks last night - 4am before I slept. It seems that I am one of those creatures who 'feel the fear and do it anyway'. It's always been like that. The desire to go versus my chicken-hearted fears.
Most amusing, probably, was flying to Istanbul when flying wasn't my favourite thing. Moving to Istanbul alone wasn't the best thing for a chicken-hearted soul to do either, actually. But there are many things I have done that left me wondering what I was thinking?!
Cairo was both so beautiful and so terrifying for this girl from small-town New Zealand.
Anyway ... it seems, despite being as much in denial as is possible, I have some allergy/food intolerance issues. Some things affect my mouth, others my throat, a few my stomach and etc. I'm thinking, after last night, that I might finally get tested because the allergies are definitely increasing and I have say, they're just not fun at 1, 2 and 3am, in a country not your own when you're alone.
And today ... I'm laughing as I write this blog post, it didn't go well at the pharmacies. They didn't really have English, and I'm famous for not being good at other languages. Ohdeargod ... so, I have some antihistamine drops (I think), and I'm meant to take 20 drops once a day, (I think) and some asprin too (which I'm pretty sure I don't like). Not really what I was looking for but they're in the building.
I'm someone who thinks if the medicine is in the building it's enough. It makes Gert crazy.
But this isn't what I meant to write of ... really. I had a nice invitation today, to supply photographs of Genova to a Ligurian magazine here. I love Liguria, there's no hiding that, and so I said sure.
The bonus was getting a copy of their latest and it contained an interview (and an A4 photograph) of my first football hero. Well, technically he's my second but as Milito left, I don't talk of him anymore.
Oh the fickle world of Series A football. I don't recall New Zealand rugby players doing these things, these transfers, however ... he has promised he will stay with my team next year.
How many readers will I lose for revealing the truth about who I follow in football ...
Last night, after eating pizza at my favourite pizzeria, I was wandering along Via XX Settembre and found the image that follows this post. I had to move quickly because there were others around and I'm not sure they all saw what I saw.
But this visit to Genova, I have to say, there has been just so much ... so many good people, so much divine food, and superb wine. Great music. Brilliant conversations.
Genova has been like that ... and so much more.
