Genova Porto Antico

It’s a bright sunny day here in Porto Antico, the Genovese St Katherine’s Dock and I must say I’m finding it hard to get my head round the extremes of Med weather, two days ago in Finale Ligure it was like a wet weekend in Bolton, dark cold and depressing, now we have sunshine which if this were July in England would have the cars bumper to bumper all the way to the South Coast.  Even today you can take your pick and go out in boots and an overcoat or shorts and flip flops, depending on which side of the streets you decide to walk.  Still, I mustn’t complain, this City is rather delightful.  Here in the marina we’re surrounded by smart yachts, cargo ships, cruise liners and most improbably the very baroque pirate’s galleon built for the film “Hook”.  We arrived yesterday and can probably afford to stay only another night or two as the mooring fees take up half our daily budget.  But, heck – who needs food anyway.  The port is amazing, a rabbit warren of docks and marinas with yachts, tugs, police boats, container ships and cruise liners coming at you from every angle – all watched over by the sixteenth century City Lighthouse which stands over one hundred metres tall and as the City Guide “Genoa – Gate of the Mediterranean” proudly tells us – “incessantly casts it yellow lightening thirty three miles away”.  It all seems a very long way from our time at Frioul.