Genoa and Pisa
Sunday 20th October 2019
Took the Frecciabianca from Pisa to Genoa in the morning where I met up with Ricardo and Katherine who were also in Italy for a few days, and had lunch at old favourite Osteria di Vico Palla. Back to Pisa towards the end of the afternoon to meet Chie, Erika and Yoko-san who had flown there from London and would be joining me for the rest of the trip.
Italy October 2019
John's Pictures

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.