Genova, Italy! Flags with mysterious origins!

Friday, June 3

Once arriving in Genova, I set out for my hostel via a bus. Although I bought a couple bus tickets for my time there, I was soon reminded that almost no one pays for the bus in Italy.  I think the bus drivers can pretty clearly notice that no one pays, but just don't care.

The view from my hostel.

The hostel was located amongst the hills surrounding the city, about a 30 minute bus ride away from the center of town (the trip was a bit longer when I rode it to the wrong end of the line first.)  It is a member of Hostelling International - I've stayed at these several times, and they always prove to be basic and rather uninteresting, but clean and inexpensive.  I dropped off my bags, picked up a map, and returned to the city to investigate the historical district.  While looking around, I met an Italian from Genova, an architect who had been planning on meeting up with friends who were visiting the area to check out the downtown area.  His friends never showed up and so he had the afternoon free, so he offered to show me around. It was an odd surprise, but turned out to be a huge blessing - he had a huge store of insight into the history of the town and what parts were best to see.  I learned that Genova's symbol of St. George and the dragon, and the red and white cross come from England - the country offered the prestige of its symbol/crest after Genova supported them in a war.  Permission to change what your city's flag looks like seems less than equal to military support, but HEY, I'm not Italian.  [EDITORS NOTE: I was researching this and found the wikipedia page about the origin of the cross.  According to wikipedia, its actually the other way around - the cross was used in several regions around spain, and the english payed the genoans for protection in the shipping channels in that area. Hmmmm.]

We parted ways for dinner, then met back up a couple hours later.  He showed me more of downtown, including two really cool bars - one with live Jazz music, and the other had once been an old prison dungeon.  It had stone walls and was lit primarily by candles.  The day was full of interestingness that I would have known nothing about had I just been by myself.

Super cool jazz bar.

Moral of the story: if you want to visit cool medieval bars, meet architects in Genova by staring at old buildings.

An old building you can practice staring at.

Other random note: Not only was Geneva itself expensive, its after-effects imputed my wallet greatly as well- when I stayed the 4 days in Switzerland, I spent a lot of money, so when I arrived in Genova, I was so relieved at the cheaper prices, and spent a lot more than I normally would. This is not recommended as a strategy for financial success.