GENOA, ITALY (TRIP: PART 3)

An alleyway to the old city near our hotel.

I swear, as soon as we crossed the border from France into Italy, I felt so happy (not that I didn't love France...)!  Maybe I was Italian in a past life?  :)  Italian people...smiling and laughing, and gesturing wildly with their hands as they speak to one another!  I am officially in love with that country.  It is beautiful, it has so much history, the language is lovely (and it was fun to listen to Raf speak!), and the food....oh my goodness, the food...First of all, I should say that the train ride from Nice to Genoa was incredibly stunning.  We hugged the Mediterranean coast (along the Ligurian Sea) most of the way.  The sun was glimmering on the water, there was a lot of greenery (the plants reminded me a lot of Berkeley), the architecture was pretty and there were splashes of bright color everywhere.  Once we arrived in Genoa, we walked to our hotel--Hotel Agnello D'oro (only a 5 minute walk) and we were pleasantly surprised by the location and helpfulness of the staff.  We were so centrally located-- near the harbor, steps away from the old city, the university, and everything else we wanted to see.  Walking around was really, really easy.  Back to the food...Genoa is known for its pesto.  It is amazing.  We ate it on fresh pasta and pizza and fresh pasta again.  :)  We ate pizza a few times, and I am pretty much forever ruined for pizza from anywhere else again.  It was so. good.  And did I mention I had some of the best coffee I have ever had in my life?  Forget about it.  Ridiculous.  And wine.  And chocolate, and gelato.  Sigh...  Anyway, we are so glad we made it there and stayed there (we were originally planning to move along to another city before heading back to the states).  Genoa is my new favorite place.  I can't wait to see more of Italy in the future!

So much color!

A courtyard within one of the beautiful buildings of the university.

A lecture hall at the university...say what?!?

A tall ship docked in the harbor....look at that water!

The sculptures on the front of the ship.

The whole thing.  Can you tell we were excited about this boat?

Super Raf near the shipping yard.

Lots of cruise ships dock here.

Old city.  hungry guy.

Old city.  cool picture.

Beautiful salad we had at a really yummy vegetarian restaurant: La Cucina di Giuditta.

Handmade seitan and mushrooms at the same restaurant...SO yum!

We LOVED the architecture in the city.

Arch of the Ponte Monumentale bridge and a dippy face :)

A platform between the streets and an amazing bridge, Ponte Monumentale.

View from the bridge!

Mercato Orientale!  One of my favorite parts of the city!  An amazing market for fresh produce, cheese, meat, spices...

The best smoked cheese I have ever had!

Fresh pasta!  Basta!

Soft cheese was presented so beautifully, like cakes!

A view from VERY high up in the city.  we took a lift to the top and walked around.  It was the best.

More views.

NICE, FRANCE! (TRIP: PART 2)

Ah...Nice, France...The train from Paris to there was really beautiful.  It was about 6 hours (on a high speed train) and we upped our seats to first class-- very good decision:  much more spacious seats, on the upper deck of the train so you could see everything, and only 14 euros extra each.  Very worth it.  Seeing the French countryside this way was lovely.  We packed a lunch, napped while it was still dark (our train left at 6 am) and just relaxed and took it all in.  I was excited to be heading toward a warmer climate and the sun radiated on the landscape for the whole trip.  Once we got to the Mediterranean, it was just breathtaking--  amazing, amazing views.  When we arrived in Nice, the weather was actually hot (we were freezing in Paris) and it was a perfect sunny day.  However, we noticed fairly quickly that folks in Nice aren't exactly... ahem ...nice to non-natives.  From the "help" desk at the train station, to the people running the tourist information center (sheesh!  right?!), to the woman who snapped at me and pretty much threw my credit card at me after I purchased our train tickets to Italy (basically, for not being French)-- let's just say we weren't very warmly welcomed.  It kind of stinks because honestly, it is such a cool city...Anyway...we stayed at a very, very pretty and very affordable hotel (Clair Hotel) with the sweetest and most helpful owner ever (a lovely British woman named Esther) in the perfect location near the port and not far from everywhere we wanted to walk to.  Public transportation is great and very affordable (only a euro per ride, cheaper if you buy a day pass) and the sea and the old city were just awesome.  Not to mention the food.  We got great bakery treats, drank plenty of wine, ate socca, a Nicoise delicacy at a super friendly and affordable socca (a crepe made from cheakpea flour and olive oil and baked in a wood fired oven) restaurant called Chez Pipo (the staff here were so friendly compared to everywhere else, we couldn't help but love the place!).  Seriously, their socca was so good that Raf and I had it for dinner the first night and went back for lunch the next day (and ordered the exact same thing!).  We also took some epic hikes, watched the sunset from the top of a hill overlooking the city and the Mediterranean, sat along the sea listening to the waves crash in for a couple of hours, walked through the windy, narrow alleys of the Old City, went to the Henri Matisse Museum, and walked amongst an old olive grove.  Over all, I would highly recommend this city to any curious traveller-- just brush up on your French and your sniffy attitude before you go!  :P

views of the port.

reward for a steep hike.

the courtyard of our hotel.

monastery garden.

olive groves.

so blue!

PARIS, FRANCE! (TRIP: PART 1)

Our France and Italy trip was wonderful!  We relaxed and walked around and ate and walked around and ate some more.  Paris was really pretty.  It was chilly and cloudy most of the time, and our hotel was not super snazzy (but in a really, really great and central location).  We saw everything we wanted to see in the 3 days we had, and ate croissants, macarons (!), and plenty of stinky cheese and bread.  We ate at two delicious vegetarian restaurants (Saveurs Veget Halles and Loving Hut) and had a romantic picnic near the Eiffel Tower.  It was lovely to just be there together.

The Louvre

The beautiful Pere Lachaise Cemetery (Jim Morrison and Chopin and Edith Piaf and many other famous folks are buried there).

Pretty ceramic flowers on many of the graves.

Chopin's grave.

The fog ate the top of the tower.

Deep in thought.

Mini tower.

Awesome artwork/installation near the tower.

An artist representative from every country in the UN painted a bear for this traveling exhibit to promote peace and unity.  They were amazing!

USA bear!

Arc De Triomphe

Big macaron, little macaron!

Can you tell I am bored with the pictures...let's eat them already--sheesh!  (BRATTY! :)