Some Tourist Action

 

Buon Giorno,

Farinata may be well be the Best Breakfast Ever. When I'm on a trip I have strong black tea for breakfast, and the mild, yet rich tasting--a bit nutty? farinata goes great with it. It's filling fuel for a lot of touristy walking, and I'm thinking it must be healthful, too. 

I've given up on the Palazzo Ducale. There are sumptuous state rooms used by the Doges, but evidently they aren't going to let me in, so I chose a different target--The Palazzo Spinola, which is also Genoa's National Gallery.

The place is very close by my own, and I looked at the map, got the directions, stepped out of my front door and promptly got lost. This is a common occurrence in my travels, and I generally get to where I'm going eventually, and anyway Genoa is just a lot of fun to walk around in. Torino was all grand avenues and piazzas. Genoa's historic center is mostly pedestrianized--out of necessity, I imagine, because those narrow streets can hardly accommodate small delivery vans and motorcycles.

It's also all up and down, which gives me a good work out, and the streets are lined with fascinating shops to provide window licking opportunities. It's often difficult to find out the name of the street I'm on, so I often don't know where I am, but unexpectedly I came upon a promising looking church. I went in.

Wow! San Siro is a Baroque masterpiece. None of the churches in Genoa are famous, and that's a shame because they are gloriously beautiful. San Siro in particular illustrated the Art Historical concept of horror vacui or fear of empty spaces. Every available surface was covered with frescos, paintings, and marble decoration.

But I still wanted to find Palazzo Spinola. I consulted my map, and I still got turned around until suddenly I stumbled upon it. That means it's time for some history!  The Doges of Genoa knew what they were about. They required rich families to build palazzi suitable for hosting foreign dignitaries. This is called the Rolli System.  The Palazzo was originally built and owned by the Grimaldi Family, but when they fell upon hard times, the mansion passed by marriage to the Dorias  Most of the decoration was done by one of the Doria Sisters, Maddelena, who married into the Spinola Family.  Eventually in the mid Twentieth Century two Spinola brothers who were childless were convinced to donate the palazzo to the Italian State.

The rooms are richly decorated in the Rococo Style--very elegant and ornate with lavish ceiling frescos, abundant paintings and solid furniture.  I enjoyed the set up of the kitchen and also a large collection of porcelain teapots. I enjoyed looking at them, but they were far too small for the amount of tea I consume daily. On the upper floors are a collection of paintings and sculptures from Ligurian artists. Downstairs in the period rooms one finds portraits of the Doria men by Van Dyke and Rubens.  Fortunately I finished my visit just as the crowds began to arrive.

By luck I took the direct way home, but I also did a bit of shopping to get my breakfast farinata, for one thing. I also succumbed to the lure of the truffle shop. The gracious proprietor urged me to taste the samples. The woman knows how to make a sale! I came away with truffle powder, which will be divine on pasta and some truffle chips I can have as an apero at some point.

Today's apero is Italian tuna, for protein and Omega 3's sake, but it's very good along with the frizzante red wine I like. I'm afraid readers will find my dinners rather repetitive as they will mostly involve pasta and pesto, but I can't help myself. It's so very good!

In other news my prediction about the Giro d'Italia stage came to nothing. The sprinters' teams miscalculated and let a breakaway stay away.

Ciao for now