08:40:28
Breakfast on the Frecciabianca from Pisa to Genoa in the morning.08:44:26
Me on the Frecciabianca.08:44:54
Views of the Apuan Alps along the Tuscan (then later Ligurian) coast.08:46:22
I found the Frecciabianca to be very pleasant and comfortable.
08:58:00
Marble quarries.08:58:01
08:58:05
09:24:06
The Mediterranean!
09:24:18
09:33:18
09:33:36
09:36:57
One of the villages of the Cinque Terre which I got a very brief glimpse of from the train.
09:55:50
Outskirts of Genoa now I think?10:20:31
On arrival at Genoa a friendly riot squad was there to greet me.10:32:16
...there was a football match on. Here you can see police escorting a coach load of football fans presumably towards the stadium.10:41:15
I stopped for a quick second breakfast at Mangini, a cafe I had liked from a previous visit to Genoa.
10:43:06
Behind the bar at Mangini.10:43:27
The interior of Mangini. A very civilised sort of place.10:52:12
The streets of Genoa.10:56:40
Alas the cafe where I was planning to meet Ricardo and Katherine was closed for refurbishment!
11:03:24
I spotted a place doing Beyond Meat burgers as I was walking through Genoa.11:04:33
The San Lorenzo cathedral.11:20:37
I actually bumped into Ricardo and Katherine on the streets as I was heading to my backup plan for a meeting place - and here we are, in Marescotti di Cavo wherein we had a preprandial.12:23:08
Then on to the main event, lunch at the excellent Osteria di Vico Palla. I was very happy to see the fried porcini on the menu again, and the accompanying panisette were just as delicious as I remember them being.
12:23:17
Ricardo and Katherine pulling silly faces at our table in the corner.12:56:15
Me looking delighted to have mandilli di seta again.12:56:18
12:56:19
13:05:44
The first wine we had - a local (Colli di Luni) vermentino.13:21:36
The other wine we had.14:04:38
After lunch, the gelateria (Profuma di Rosa) I had planned to return to turned out to be closed, so we randomly tried this one (U gelato du Caruggiu) and it also turned out to be very good.14:18:06
Vaguely wandering back toward the station.
14:48:03
Alas our time in Genoa was short but sweet, as I had to get back to Pisa to meet the girls, so we said our farewells at this cafe opposite the station.15:23:11
On the train back to Pisa now.16:05:41
I thought I'd try the Aperol Spritz on the train on the way back.16:16:26
In the dining car no less!
17:30:06
I had been quite badly bitten by mosquitoes the night before, so on my return to Pisa I went and found a pharmacy and bought some repellent.18:47:38
After meeting the girls and dropping their bags off at the hotel we walked over to the leaning tower to get our tourist obligations out of the way.18:47:51
The obligatory photos ensued of course. I thought I got this just about right.18:49:58
...however here our hands seem to be all over the place!
19:25:00
Aperitivo time! We had a bit of a wait for the place we had chosen for dinner to open and I thought the girls might like the atmosphere at the Piazza delle Vettovaglie which I'd discovered yesterday evening.19:31:30
Erika particularly liked her orange juice apparently (it seems quite often in Italy there's sugar added, which probably explains why).19:54:38
La Pergoletta, where we went for dinner. This had a really nice interior (which looked a bit like an exterior).20:33:02
My ravioli with black truffle. Tasted nice but a bit on the small side!
20:33:22
Our table.21:18:53
Erika and I having some gelato after dinner on the streets of Pisa.