Our plan when we left the Cinque Terre was to ride the train to Genova, and get on-line to run through our options for the next destination... We were distracted and hopped off one station too early, outside the city centre. For a few hours we searched for an Internet cafe, whilst wandering slowly towards the city centre.

Genova seemed like an interesting city. As we meandered through cobbled roads we managed to stumbled into some sort of festival, with people in fancy dress, and even marching bands. At some point we started searching for hotels instead of Internet, and eventually found a friendly little place near the central station (where we should have hopped off in the first place!).

We spent a bit of time planning the next few months of our journey, and making sure that our funds would last. In the end we decided to wait for Em and the folks in Cannes, but not before checking out a little of Genova first..

We hiked up from our hotel to a mountain ridge, which overlooked the entire city. The track was steep, but wound though a leafy nature reserve for most or the way. At the top we took in a breathtaking view of the boat harbour, city skyline and even the railway passing through adjacent mountains. Just a little further from our lookout, an old fortress sat at the very highest point, watching over the seaside city.

Due to a strike by the French Railway Workers, our train down to the French Riviera was stopped at the border for about five hours. So now we're sitting in a lush beachside park in the border town of Ventimiglia, enjoying the best of Italy, and patiently waiting for the French to get back to work!