Freighter Travel – Genoa, Italy

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At Genoa, Italy, two pilots came aboard. On account of Lyra's size, we had to sail into the outward bound sea lane to give us sufficient space to turn into the wharf area. Once between the wharf and the breakwater we had to execute a three point turn before the tugs and the ship’s bow thruster nudged us into the wharf to be tied off. It was perfect timing all completed quarter of an hour before lunch.

After lunch we headed into Genoa in the company of Captain Aurel, Chief Engineer Constantin and fellow passenger Elisabeth. First we caught the shuttle bus across the container terminal to Voltri and then we took a city bus to downtown Genoa. We arrived at the waterfront area near the Aquarium and the “Il Galeone Neptune”, a replica galleon made for Roman Polanski’s movie “Pirates”, and then we ventured into the old part of town.

The first historic buildings we saw were the lovely Palazzo San Giorgio and then Museo del Tesoro di S. Lorenzo, which I thought was a church! We turned the corner into the Piazza G. Matteotti and found ourselves amongst a large number of busy market stalls selling products in the “Bonjour La France” promotion.

There were more stalls offering goods in the lower floor of Torre Grimaldina so we stopped to have a glass of French Champagne produced by Monsieur Daniel Ducoms. When Daniel realised I am a New Zealander he introduced us to another Daniel, his friend and fellow stall-holder.

Daniel Cocciula, a former hooker who played in Toulouse during the 1980s, now describes himself as a gentleman farmer of foie gras, a perfect partner for champagne! We had a conversation on the recent world cup and he was more than a little animated when describing Ritchie McCaw and his ability to avoid being penalised. After 15 minutes of rugby conversation we continued our exploration of “Bonjour La France” with the delicious flavours of foie gras and champagne lingering on our palates.

Via Garabaldi is a fascinating street of stunningly beautiful Palazzi, it certainly deserves it's UNESCO world heritage status. We walked into a number of the Palazzi including the lovely Palazzo Nicolò Grimaldi.

We made it back to the ship in time for dinner, which turned out to be good timing because there was thunder, lightning and heavy rain just after we boarded.

The morning dawned with broody clouds and light rain. We decided to spend a restful morning in the dry before venturing out. This time we caught the train to Genoa. The local station was in a mess due to upgrade work and the only way to get to the train was to jump down from the platform and cross the tracks directly in front of the train. This seemed a little strange to us coming from New Zealand where there is an obsession with health and safety rules.

The train was a little faster than the bus but once we got off the train we still needed to catch a bus to get to the city centre. We jumped aboard the first bus we saw but unfortunately it was travelling away from the city! No matter, we exited a couple of stops later, crossed the road, and then caught one going in the right direction.

The aquarium entry fee at the waterfront was 19 euro each so we gave it a miss, setting out instead to find some new shoes as my pair had a large tear in the side and were in danger of disintegrating completely. Surprisingly we found a replacement pair of Avia anti-pronation running shoes, almost identical to my old pair. Six months, five continents and 23 countries – I suppose I cannot complain too much about the performance of the old pair!

We had dinner in town to avoid the peak time commuters and this meant we climbed the gangway in the dark which turned out to be preparation for another more challenging climb at a later point in our journey.

Over breakfast the next morning I quizzed Elisabeth about her untypical French breakfast of cereal and tea. She told us that she lived in Cypress for a time and she got into the British habit of taking cereal for breakfast. The tea habit came from a nanny position while in Wales 30+ years ago. The lady of the house had a cup of tea for breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and later in the evening. Elisabeth said she could not sleep when she was first introduced to the habit!

Life aboard ship between ports is punctuated by meal times which, in many ways, is a highlight of the day because this is where you catch up on the shipboard news and get to know the officers better in a more informal and relaxed state.

A little while after the excitement of departing Genoa I spent some time on the bridge with Radu. I discovered this very nice young officer from Romania had investigated and seriously considered emigrating to New Zealand a few years earlier. He rewarded my interest by showing me all the ship’s instrumentation and gave me a refresher on navigating using the charts which I thoroughly enjoyed. The GPS was particularly impressive showing not only our ship's location but also our speed and direction. It also plotted all the other ships in the area (with transponders) showing their names, speeds and directions. This was to prove very interesting for us when later on our journey we entered the "pirate risk area".

As I sipped tea and enjoyed the view I looked out on our port side and saw an interesting shaped island. Consulting the chart revealed that this was Isola di Montechristo, the setting for Alexandre Dumas's novel "The Count of Montechristo". This volcanic island has history with the Greeks, the Romans, the Turks and it is now in the hands of the Italians.

For history buffs or those who just like a good yarn there are several interesting stories from the past linked with the island. The characters at different times include a bishop, a dragon, monks, and the pirates "Redbeard" and "Dragut". The only man-made remains on the island today are the ruins of the monastery and the Villa of Cala Maestra.

Feeling satisfied with my quiet time on the bridge I decided to retire to my cabin.

"Set a course for Malta, Radu ... engage!"

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Comments

[John and Sylvia]

The joys of freighter travel
Nice to see someone else travelling by freighter. We went from Italy to the USA last year. You might like to compare your trip with ours. I am still finishing it off. [blog=751266] John