Port Antico

We felt we couldn't leave Genoa without wandering down to see it's ancient port that we heard had been restored in the early 90's, making it a more accessible and desirable area for locals and tourists.  With the "Museo del Mare" (Museum of the Sea) or, "Galata" as it is also known, as our destination, we jumped on a bus to the Piazzo Acquaverde and then walked towards the sea.

Making our way through a narrow opening between two buildings, we stumbled upon an interesting looking church and thought we would pop in for a quick peek.  As we were the only visitors, a kind, older Italian gentleman greeted us right away and offered to give us a brief history of the church, 'San Giovanni de Pre'.  He was very apologetic of what he called his 'school days' English, but we so appreciated the effort he put into speaking with us and, of course, his English was much stronger than our Italian!

San Giovanni de Pre

He explained that this church and its hospital were built in 1180 by the Order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, which later became the Knights of Malta, to provide shelter and assistance to crusaders (he mentioned, for example, that Richard the Lionheart had visited) on their way to and from Jerusalem.   At this time, it sat among gardens and fields and had its own jetty out to the Mediterranean.

He directed our gaze to its romanesque arches that, he said, are the second largest in all of Europe.  When he pointed it out, we noticed the wall on the left slanted towards the seaside, which could perhaps explain why braces had been added to the arches.

Interior of San Giovanni de Pre

A section of the romanesque arches.

After thanking our guide, we continued our walk to the Museum of the Sea.  It has three floors of displays on the seafaring history of Genoa, including old maps and globes, information on Christopher Columbus, a replica of a 17th century galley ship and an excellent 'Italian Emigration by Sea' exhibit.
 

Upon entering, the first thing we saw was a large screen with this 1597 painting by Cristoforo Grassi of the port of Genoa in the late 15th century, copied from an earlier work by an anonymous painter.

Part of the 17th galley ship replica that you could enter.  Reading about the living conditions on these ships, I sure wouldn't have wanted to have spent any time on the real thing.

Barry chained in and giving the rowing a go for a few minutes.  In the real galley ship, he would have been chained up with two other men and giving it all they had for one hour at a time.  Maybe it would have been good for his tennis game to keep up a bit longer, but we all had snack time on our minds.

Sharing some tasty pesto pizza at the museum's café overlooking the port.  After our break, we were ready to learn about the history of emigration from this port, on the third floor.

Between 1861 and 1907, 5 million Italians emigrated from the Port of Genoa for Buenos Aries, Argentina; Santos, Brazil and Ellis Island, U.S.A.  This part of the museum offering us a glimpse of the emigrant experience in this era, was the girls' favourite.

Barry pretending to buy coveted first-class tickets for his family aboard the Città de Torino to Buenos Aires.  (The girls were glad it was the off-season and we had the whole floor to ourselves for Barry's performance.)

Here we are boarding our ship.  We had smiles, but one can only imagine how it felt for these people to leave all they knew behind, most often forever.  We learned that the majority of travellers were confined to third class bunk rooms, with men separated from women and children, in horrible conditions where illness and disease thrived.  It was sobering for the girls to learn that people died regularly on these boats, and that 1 in 20 survived the trip, only to be denied access to the destination country upon arrival.

A replica of a first-class cabin that only a small minority enjoyed.

The emigration exhibit led into a positive exhibit on immigration into Italy.  The immigrant population has increased from 200 000 in the late 70's to 5 000 000 today.  I appreciated the message on the final sign.

We only had one more area to explore, but first we needed to pick up some hard hats.  Then, a quick walk out to the harbour and we were climbing down into the Nazario Sauro S518 submarine that had been in operation from 1980 to 2009.

Lily contemplating which button, out of hundreds, to switch on.

More submarine fun.  Well.... for 3 of us.  The sound effects had started to get to Grace.  She abandoned ship immediately after this photo was taken.

Safely back on land, we decided to give the 'caruggi' of the old town one more shot, but this time we would do it properly.  We went earlier in the afternoon and with a specific destination in mind:  prize winning gelato!

Frederica, our Italian cooking teacher, had recommended we go to "Profumo in Vico del Gerri", a gelataria that frequently wins best gelato in all of Italy.  With no complaints from either daughter, we headed back into the narrow alleyways.  We knew we had arrived when we came around the corner and found several groups enjoying gelato.

We were not disappointed.  The blackberry gelato was the most delicious gelato I have ever tasted.  The only complaint we had was some of the flavours (no chocolate for Lily!) were sold out by the afternoon, as they make fresh batches daily, and we didn't know what all the flavours were due to our poor Italian.  I was so tempted to go back for another bowl when a young Italian boy came out with some sort of raspberry or strawberry looking flavour.  How did I miss that?  If I am ever back, I won't be as shy asking about flavours!