Tuesday, May 28, 2024 Adventures in Italy Part 9

(To start at the beginning: Adventures in Italy Part 1)

Genoa, Italy – August 2016 (a note about the bad quality of the photos with these Italy posts thus far: I have been unable to find the digital originals from this trip, so I’m taking photos of the photo book I had made. Ugh! The hunt for the photos in the labyrinth of old hard drives continues.)

We walked on, admiring the beauty of the architecture and reminded of how young the United States is by looking at an ancient city.

At some point we had wanted to go up to a higher part of the city to a scenic overlook, so we found a shady spot to get a fix on where we were and where we needed to go next. We depended on the combined use of the map on my phone (with that handy pulsating blue dot that tells you where you are) and the map we had gotten from Giovanni. We discovered that we had wandered much farther west than we needed to and had to backtrack in order to find the place where we could catch a funicular up the hill. The street signs in Italy are not placed right in the intersections as they are in the U.S., so it requires a little bit of hunting each time you come to an intersection to find the building on which the small sign is placed.

As you walk down each street, you pass many little side streets that are exceedingly narrow and dark; I found them somewhat intimidating looking, but still rather quaint. Every block or so, we’d stop in a shady spot, get out the phone and the map, and check to see if we were still headed in the right direction. It looks so simple on a map, but the reality is less clear, especially since there are so many piazzas with roundabouts and multiple streets funneling in and out of them.

We finally came to a very busy street where the funicular station was supposed to be, but couldn’t see anything that looked like the right thing. Hmmm…. We crossed the street, hoping for the best. I was feeling very determined not to walk up that steep hill! I saw a little shop on the corner and went in, hoping to get help. “Scusi, non parlo Italiano,” I started off, thinking it best to get the facts out on the table right away. “Dov’e funicular?” The young woman behind the counter responded with friendly enthusiasm, apologizing for her poor English, which was of course many times better than our Italian. “It is by toonel,” she started out. Kris understood that this meant “tunnel,” which helped (I was still trying to work that one out – toonel?). “You go left, is two shops from toonel.” Perfetto! We said our “grazie’s” and walked over there, a very small and understated entrance – no wonder we hadn’t seen it. We were confronted by a machine to buy the tickets and this is definitely Kris’s domain, so I stood back while he figured it out: three euros for a round trip that gave you 100 minutes up at the top. We had to wait a few minutes for the funicular to start its trip up the hill and there was another one at the top waiting to come down. They started up simultaneously and although it appeared that there was only one track, it split in the middle, allowing the funicular cars to pass each other. Here’s a photo of how it looks:

I grew up singing the song, “Funiculi, Funicula,” so I couldn’t help but think of that as we rode the Funicular. “Some think the world is made for fun and frolic..and so do I, and so do I…”

Once at the top, we were feeling the need for a little cold liquid refreshment (did I mention how hot it was?) and stopped in at an outdoor ristorante for a birra and an aqua naturale. Ahh… Now, to find the panoramic vista! Well, that turned out to be easier said than done. I think we both figured that once we got up there, we’d see a sign and a bunch of tourists with cameras. The view was obscured by buildings and trees where we were so we walked for a bit in one direction but the elusive panoramic vista did not appear before us and it seemed we were getting father away from the action, so we turned around and pursued the other direction. It always seemed just beyond where we were. I was beginning to lose heart, but Kris spurred us on with the thought that we should persevere and it would be worth it. We walked on and eventually did find a place that gave a beautiful view of the area further up the hill and a better partial view of the rest of the city below. Good enough for me!

We turned around and headed back, still well within our 100 minute limit, and boarded the funicular to go back down the hill. Here we are, waiting to go down again: