AspiringNomad

Saturday turned out to be a completely different day to what I expected, good and bad!
Once up and ready, I walked to Via Garabaldi. This street is home to some of the most popular tourist spots in Genoa and has many palaces to wander round.
I bought my ticket and an app with a virtual guide for the main three palaces and started with Palazzo De Rosso.
Unfortunately, my crippling period pain was making it very difficult to enjoy the Palace as much as I wanted. So, I cut my losses and walked to the nearest park to sit in the sun for a while. I had to accept that I wasn’t going to be able to see all the things that I wanted to today, but knowing that I was in a lovely part of the world in the hot sun made it much better.

I was still in agony though, so I decided to find a pharmacy for some pain killers.
I reluctantly headed back to the apartment to recuperate, eat copious amounts of Ameretti biscuits and had a short nap whilst the pain relief kicked in.

Fortunately, at about 4pm I was feeling much better and was determined to make the most of the rest of the day.
I wanted to visit another area to the East of Genoa to soak in what was left of the sun and see the sunset whilst I was here. I headed to Brignole Station and grabbed the train to Bogliasco.
When I arrived, I was met again with colourful buildings bursting from the hillside, all complete with matching green shutters, another beautiful yet humble area of Liguria.
I found a nice spot on the beach and relaxed for a while before treating myself to an Aperol Spritz on the terrace of a bar that looked over the sea. A perfect place to watch the sun go down behind Bogliasco.

Whilst sipping my Aperol, I was busy texting a guy called Leonardo (We all knew I wouldn’t be able to resist a look on Tinder). He had suggested that we go to Camogli for a drink.
I thought that as I was travelling alone it probably wasn’t the best idea to meet with someone I had met online, but like any normal single 28 year old, I said yes anyway. I sent my live location to my friends just in case and arranged to meet him for a drink.
Leonardo, or Leo (as he likes to be called) picked me up in his very nice car from Bogliasco and we made our way to Camogli. He was extremely Italian. Imagine an Italian man, and Leo looked like that. Very handsome with long brown hair swept back, olive skin, a neat beard, and well dressed.
In case you’re wondering why I haven’t run off with this man never to return to England again, he was also about 5″6′. I don’t think that needs much more explanation!

It was dark so I didn’t get to see much of the town but we sat along the promenade which had a beautiful sea view and I could tell that the atmosphere of the people and the place was very chilled out and calm.
I had a great time chatting to Leo and Google translate only had to come out a few times!
After a couple of Negroni’s (apparently I hadn’t had a proper one until I had one in Italy) we headed back to Genoa.

Despite a rocky first half of the day, I managed to still see some sights and visit places that I wanted to tick off whilst I was here. Considering the circumstances, a successful day with lessons learnt!