Sunday 18^th May 2014

The Ship sailed into Genoa Harbour and docked at 7:00am.

We woke this morning to blue sky with some high cloud and an expected maximum temperature of 21°, although is seemed hotter out in the sun.

Not such an early start this morning but we had breakfast delivered to our Stateroom as we had to be ready to board the tour bus at 8:15am for our guided walking tour of the cultural and historic highlights of Genoa’s inner city.

We started at the ancient harbour front, which has been newly transformed into shops, eateries & attractions.

Ferrari Square

We then walked through the old medieval area and saw the Cathedrale di San Lorenzo, then the church of Santa Maria dìCostello ( which is the oldest dating from the11^th century), and San Matteo church (favorite of the Doria family and located in a small square surrounded by several Doria palaces. The tomb of Andrea Doria, (an admiral of the Genoese fleet in the 1500’s) is located in the crypt. These old churches are all built with the characteristic black & white marble striped façade.

View of old town from our Ship

The Doges Palace (Palazzo Ducale) once housed the Doges and is now a cultural centre. We walked past the little house where Christopher Columbus is said to have spent his childhood and ended with free time at the Piazza De Ferrari (no not the same family as Enzo), the busiest traffic hub in the city. A lovely fountain in the middle of the square is surrounded by the Stock Exchange, Academy of Fine Arts and a monument to Garibaldi.

Unfortunately as it was Sunday no shops except café’s were open so no retail therapy for Lynne, probably a good thing as, Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest even for credit cards.

Whilst Genoa is very old the harbour area is quite modern as most of the outer harbour buildings were destroyed by bombing during WWII.

Back on board ship about 2:00pm and as Lynne appears to have picked up a cold, she had a sleep while I took some photos of the harbour region. Dinner was at 8:15pm.

San Lorenzo Cathedral