Gypsy Feet: First Italian port

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

First Italian port

As we pulled into shore, we could see that Genoa used to be a city of splendor. The magnificent hills, the beautiful architecture, the pride of the people. But today, Genoa is a quiet port city, closed for Ferragosto, the 15th of August. For those of you who don't know, this is why going to Italy in August is less expensive, and a little less authentic (courtesy of Wikipedia):

Ferragosto is an Italian holiday celebrated on August 15. Originally, it was related to a celebration of the middle of the summer and the end of the hard labour in the fields. In time,Roman Catholicism adopted this date as a Holy Day of Obligation to commemorate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary—the real physical elevation of her sinless soul and incorrupt body into Heaven.

Before the Roman Catholic Church came into existence, however, this holiday was celebrated in the Roman Empire to honor the gods—in particular Diana—and the cycle of fertility and ripening. In fact, the present Italian name of the holiday derives from its original Latin name, Feriae Augusti ("Festivals [Holidays] of the Emperor Augustus") ^[1].

Almost the entire month of August was taken as a holiday and leisure time in Italy in honor of this feast day.

Genoa, Italy…the home of great pesto! As our ship docked on Sunday, Genova was a ghost town. We wandered through the streets and saw little India, little Marrakech, and Chinatown, but Italy was nowhere to be found.

Finally, after photographing beautiful, but empty buildings, we ended up at Port Antico near the aquarium. We had lunch at a little outdoor restaurant (gnocchi with pesto and linguine with clam sauce, tiramisu for dessert).

Slowly, we made our way back to the ship. Genova is a hilly port city that has echoes of its splendid past. We hiked up steps and cobblestone streets. If you use your imagination while gazing at the architecture, you can experience what it must have felt like to be here hundreds of years ago. Today, it was a great port stop, but not someplace I’d want to stay. Next time I’m in this region, other than perhaps a quick stop for pesto, I plan to head to Cinque Terre or Portofino, something we did not have time to do today. Instead, we spent some time enjoying the ship…pool, drinks, sunshine, the wind in our hair, and the YMCA! Even on an Italian cruise line, American cheese music abounds…enjoy!