Day of the Day: Sabato - Saturday

So Saturday Giudi had to run into work for a bit.  She went in around 9:30 and finished up by 1ish.  I met up with her at the duomo and then we met to lunch.  We were actually meeting a bunch of her friends at the cafe.  Since Giudi knows seemingly everybody in Genoa, a bunch of people walking by eventually sat with us.  So by the end of lunch I met Fabio, Carlotta, Simona, Mariana, Deborah, and Robbie.  They were all very nice, but it was hard to understand their italian unless they were talking to me directly.  When they were talking amongst themselves they were using slang and talking so quickly that I couldn't always follow what they were saying.  Anyway, I ended up having a faghinata which is a tortilla thingy filled with pesto and cheese and baked.  When I cut into the rolled up faghinata it slowly began to ooze cheese and pesto.  It was sooooooo good.  And of course we all had espressos after the meal.  Actually, while Giudi and I were waiting for her friends to arrive we had espressos.  So I had coffee before and after lunch, but it was all delicious.  So after that Giudi and I retreated to her apartment.  Giudi took a nap and I read part of Hadrian's Dreams for studio.  Maybe about 4ish we went to see the lanterna (lighthouse), the symbol of Genoa.  While we were there we came across an alpine concert.  The alpine are mountain folk who sing and are generally nice human beings.  Recently Genova has been enlisting the Alpine to walk around the city with policemen to help clean up the streets.

The lanterna is quite nice.  They have a long promenade leading up to it where you can see the city and the water.  They've got a bunch of signs and stuff talking about the history of Genoa and the things that are visible from each point.

After the lanterna we met up with Giudi's friends.  Deborah drove and went to Nervi which is about 15 minutes away by car.  Nervi is directly on the coast.   They've got a promenade and park all along the coast; it was really pretty.  So we walked from our parking spot around 6 km to a place to eat.  I had something weird with anchovies.  It was a little too salty for my liking, but pretty good. We met up with Frank and Sandro at the restaurant.  After dinner we walked back up the promenade to a bar where Giudi's friend was DJing.  Although I dont remember the DJ's name.  So we were there and of course saw other people that Giuditta knew.  I only remember Francesco, who is from southern italy.  He was very proud of the mafia in Bari.  Francesco was hosting an erasmus student (european exchange student program) and brought her out.  She was from estonia but I cant remember her name.  So he told me about soccer and how much  better Sampdoria is than Genova (rivals) and started singing the Sampdoria fight song.  It was pretty funny.

Sunday I woke up around 9ish.  Had a coffee in the apartment with Giudi.  Then we decided to get breakfast.  So we went to a focacceria and had another coffee with the focaccia.  Then, after the focaccia, Giudi had another coffee.  So to those of you counting thats 3 espressos in 2 hours.  So then we walked around a bit.  Giudi took me to her friend's place who runs a pasticceria.  So instead of waiting for the nice lady behind the counter to wait on us, she ran into the back and got one of her friends to come out and help us.  She of course got me a discount on the pasta.  It was troffie, which is the traditionaly wormy like noodle of Genova.  I had already bought a jar of pesto earlier that weekend.  So after we walked for a bit, we took the finiculare up to San Nicolas (near the villa).  From there we walked downhill a little bit to i tre Merli (the three crows).  They are a traditional little restaurant that has started to gain some success.  We went to the original one.  But they also have one near Via Garibaldi in Genoa, and also at Porto Antico in Genoa, and then one in New York City somewhere.  So I had carpaccio which was raw swordfish with lemon juice as an appetizer.  I had pasta with mushrooms, and then roast rabbit.  The rabbit was good, but kind of hard to eat.  There were so many little bones all the time.  So then after lunch, we had another espresso.  I had so much coffee, but it was so good!  So after lunch we walked downhill back to the apartment.  My train left at 5 so we had a little bit of free time to talk and lounge about in the apartment.

Oh, I almost forgot.  So while Giudi was at work Saturday morning I walked around the medieval part of Genova and found a local enoteca.  I talked to the man working (strictly in italian) that i wanted to get a bottle of wine for a friend as a gift.  He helped me choose a good one and even wrapped it for me.  And, he gave me a one euro discount for some reason.  So anyway, when I eventually gave the bottle to Giuditta as a small token of thanks she started beating me up.  She started hitting me and said I'm not supposed to give her anything blah blah blah.  It was funny.  I got her a Francello something or other nero d'avola from sicily.  So that was my weekend.  It was really fun.  I'm glad I went.  I got all my work done that was due on monday on the 3.5 hour train ride (each way) and I've got Tuesday and Wednesday to work on my studio stuff.  So no worries.