Italian Tour Begins!

Over the 2 week school holiday period, we are making our way south through Italy. Leaving our place in Grenoble at 7.30am, we noticed a distinct difference in the lightness of the morning compared to a month ago when we left to go skiing for the day. A good sign that the days are getting longer and perhaps warmer!

Our destination for the day was Genoa, located 400km away on the Mediterranean. The journey involved 4 train changes and a 2 hour break halfway at Modane. Without reserved seating, we still managed to sit together for the whole trip.

At 4.30pm, our train rolled into Genoa and we ambled the 1.5km (the same distance of walking to school - our yardstick whenever either girls asks how long a walk will take!)  to our apartment through the narrow streets. We unpacked and relaxed before heading out for dinner.

Our host had recommended a local pasta restaurant for dinner and investigating further we discovered it opened at 7pm! (A little late than usual for us.) Leaving the apartment, we found the harbour a short distance away. Weaving through some shady looking characters hanging out at the local bar, we arrived at the said restaurant to a small crowd of people gathering. It was then we noticed the banner hanging over the door - Cavour 21 Trattoria Genovese, Pesto World Champion.

Slowly the crowd grew and we wiggled in closer. It really wasn't clear what, if any, queueing system was to be employed, and it looked like there was no way the restaurant would fit in all these people. Would we be rejected for not having a booking? Would we be able to understand the directions once we got inside? Well, in the end it was relatively orderly, and there were a few more rooms than we could see from the front window. We were shunted to a 4-person table in once corner of the restaurant. On the neighbouring table were two couples, who clearly didn't know each other, but got seated together. Our other neighbours had a couple and two singles! Glad we had a family of 4 to fill a table...



Anyway, the wall was decorated with placemats decorated by previous patrons, some of them pretty artistic. The food was outstandingly cheap (especially coming from France) and delicious. (Nat had the pesto, just to see how world champions live.) And there was no hanging around at the tables. We all ordered immediately. Food came in a few minutes, and people vacated their space as soon as they finished, to help reduce the growing line of patrons out the front. All quite an experience...