We took the train from Milan to Genova/Genoa. Dad was using his points for a free night at the Holiday Inn Express and we would use it as our base to explore the Cinque Terre.
We arrived in Genoa in the late afternoon and walked the ten minutes or so from the train station to the hotel.
Already my opinion of the city was mixed. It was very busy and had the outer appearance of wealth while also looking dirty.
We had no specific plans for Genoa as we were really only using it as a base for the Cinque Terre the next day. So that evening we just wandered around historic Genoa to see the city. We wandered around looking at the old beautiful buildings and visited a couple churches.
Trump-l'oeil is a very popular form of art in this region and was seen on many of the buildings. It is crazy how easily the eye can be tricked.
Genoa very much gave the impression of faded wealth. You could tell from the buildings that this used to be a centre of great wealth and power but did not appear to be so anymore. The streets were dirty and many of them smelt like urine. We were not charmed by Genoa. As the sun set we actually started to feel a bit unsafe wandering around and so we hurried back to the hotel to find a restaurant for dinner.
That night we ate dinner at a Chinese run Italian restaurant. That is one thing we noticed about Genoa in comparison the the other places we had visited in Italy, it was very cosmopolitan and diverse. Perhaps due to its being a sea port?
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