Welcome to Italy Wonderful Wine and Fine Dineing

Been in Genoa Italy since Saturday arrived at the ship to find that they had off loaded earlier than scheduled for the boat and Andy were gone, of course the battery on my cell phone was flat and the new 12V charger I purchased is in the cabinet draw behind the desk. I managed to get a ride from the port security back to hotel where Andy had been staying, after settling his account (good job I stopped by) I used their telephone to call all of the marinas in Genoa to find out who had a reservation for Windsong, found her on the third try and he was just tying up, so another 35E taxi fare later I was at the boat, and what a mess she was, apparently the company we hired to shrink wrap her ran out of time so she came across the Atlantic completely uncovered, the decks were black with soot all of the stainless was rust speckled the topsides were covered in little red rust blobs from the generator stacks and all the new canvas was covered in soot, so we did what all good boat crews do, went to lunch.

We walked to a touristy area along the dock and went into the first authentic Italian restaurant we found for some famous Northern Italian Quazean and were promptly met by our Chinese waiter, fortunately he did not speak English just Italian and Chinese I would imagine, we ordered wine, Andy had become a cynosure within the three days he had been here, which apparently would account for the Hotel bill! The wine arrived and we pondered over the menu which of course was in Italian, I really should pay more attention to the names of the dishes I like at El Mila no, after the second page I found something that looked familiar 'Soup a dipech' I remembered feasting on a plate full of El Milanos wonderful home made spaghetti piled with shrimp and scallops, muscled and clams all in a aromatic wine and garlic sauce, O MY GOD !!!!! what would it be like in the fishing port of Genova in Northern Italy ? I was salivating at the thought.

Firstly arrived the bread; not exactly what I was expecting, plain, white, stale! Yes it threw me a little o well maybe things were slow the start of the season and all that, Andy’s beef fascada arrived a small dish with three slices of meat and a side salad that would have fit into an egg cup, not much of a main course, I chuckled as I thought of the feast that was about to be bestowed upon me, the man who knows what to order when it comes to Italian! While taking a sip of my rather tart fizzy, yes I did say fizzy (Andy assured me that it was a specialty of the region) out of the corner of my eye I saw the Chinese waiter reach from the tray and place in front of me a 6 inch side plate with six of the smallest shrimp I have seen since leaving the UK and that’s including popcorn shrimp!!! In fact if they had not still retained their heads, tails and in fact legs presented in a more traditional American way without full armor you would not of been able to recognize it as a food group let alone a shrimp, however to be fair it did come with a side order of calamari all of which had been deep fried in what appeared to be used engine oil for a very long time and at a temperature close to combustion I would imagine, a couple of leaves of limp lettuce and there it was Soup a Dipech Northern Italian Style!!!!!

After much sniggering from my dinner date and partner in crime I tried to break open one of the alleged shrimp to sample what must be a delicacy because of its limited supply, good job I was wearing my glasses, once opened I revealed a shriveled up piece of alleged shrimp meat approximately 1inch long that in girth remarkably resembled a tape worm.

What were we to do? I only had El Milanos definition of what the dish should resemble but could you imagine a dish in Italy no in Northern Italy in the famous fishing port of Genova that did not present a 15E (almost $20.00) dish that had neither fish or pasta!!!!

Unable to complain, I was too tired and too English that is speaking of course, so we finished the wine vowed never to eat in the tourist area restaurants again and went back to the boat for ram & noodles (the only thing that was easily available ate and went to bed.

While lying in my bunk delirious with exhaustion I thought to myself I wonder what they are doing for a village idiot in Biddulph since I left, there isn’t enough money exchanging hands to make me want to stay here, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home! And I drifted off into my how the hell do I get out of it sleep to dream of better days and of course meals.

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