We left Barcelona on Sunday and headed northeast into France. We scooted along the southern coast on the way to Italy stopping off in Marseille (South of France) for the night.
We had a wonderful dinner at our hotel after we were able to understand the menu. The poor French waitress/server couldn’t speak english so her idea was to go to the chef and have him write down his recommendations in english and bring them back to us, hoping we would just order that and she wouldn’t have to answer 20 questions about the menu. I thought that was pretty resourceful of her and it worked for half our order :). Kevin ended up with a dish of scallops, artichokes, potatoes and onions in a saffron sauce. He loved it! I wasn’t quite so easy 🙂
Our room in France was interesting in that the bathroom was all out in the open. No privacy whatsoever! They obviously don’t know Kevin LOL!
While in Portugal and Spain I was a little confident with communicating since I have a little knowledge of the spanish language. But now that I’ve left the Spanish speaking countries, my confidence has left me. I have no idea how to communicate in French or Italian. It is a whole new ballgame! Google is helping a little, but it is falling short.
So Kevin has an interesting plan for learning the local language. He watches TV and figures out what the story is about. Today, the story was about a work of art that was up on the screen. Isn’t that interesting that an artist would just happen to be watching a show about a work of art? It didn’t look like a work of art to me, but what do I know? He determined that certain words had art meaning and the commentator was waving his arms around to explain the reaction everyone had to the art piece. When I joined in, he said no, no! that is not what he is saying. I guess only he gets to play this game. Fine! We’ll see how this works out for him.
Our drive into Italy was super exciting! We were so excited to be in Italy! The drive there was beautiful. It was mountainous and we spent more time in tunnels than we did outside of them. The ocean was on our right the whole time.
The upper part of Italy on the west side borders the Ligurian Sea and the bottom part of western Italy is on the Tyrrhenian Sea. I have to admit, I have not heard of either one of those bodies of water. But, they are that beautiful color of mixed blues with the aqua color closest to the beach.
Genoa/Genova, Italy
Our first stop was in Genoa/Genova. The city goes by both names. Genoa is the english version of the genuine italian name Genova. We spent the day finding our way around on public transportation and on a hop on hop off bus city tour.
Of course, we started off the day getting on Bus 17 going the wrong way to the City Center. It seems to be our thing. We figured it out pretty quick when our GPS showed us going the opposite direction. We jumped off that bus and onto another enabling us to find our way to the City Center and onto the tour bus.
Liberation Day
And once again, we have arrived this city on a national holiday. April 25 is Liberation Day in Italy, also known as the anniversary of Italy’s Liberation, Anniversary of the Resistance. I think this is the equivalent to our Independence Day (July 4). It is a national holiday in Italy that commemorates the victory of the Italian resistance movement against Nazi Germany. It was declared a national holiday in 1949.
So everything is closed! 🙁
Luckily, the buses were running and we were able to see the city.
Vittorio Emanuele II – He worked to free Italy from foreign control and became a central figure of the movement for Italian unification. He was the first King of Italy in the late 1800’s.
Our Favorite Cities so far:
- You guessed it, Barcelona!! for it’s charm
- Yep, the lovely city of Salamanca Spain
- The tourist resort, Marbella Spain
- Lisbon, Portugal – home of the loving people
- Madrid, Spain – for the beautiful architecture
Genova, Italy hasn’t wowed us but we are just getting started in Italy! I have great expectations and high hopes!! It will be interesting to see how our list changes and difficult to knock some of them down.
“Non Tutte le Ciambelle Riescono Col Buoco”
Some silliness on the road!!
You guys take the best pictures. I’m curious what stops you have planned for Italy! I love all the descriptions and how your working through language barriers LOL!
Kevin you more and more like dad every day.
Love you guys
Next stop is Tuscany!
I love these photos of the two of you. Adorable!
I’m shocked to hear about the bathroom in France. I don’t think it’s in anyone’s interest to put a halt on privacy. I did not experience that in Paris, Normandy or Brittany but I’ll be aware in the future.
The ocean scenes are gorgeous! I’m looking forward to seeing more of Italy. You’re brave travelers, dealing with different languages and cultures all the way.
Thanks Kate!
I was wondering if you were going to visit Italy. My husband & I spent 4 days in Rome, we walked everywhere, except when we went to visit a catacomb. That was very interesting. Highly recommend a private tour of the Vatican if you go there. We didn’t plan to visit it, but after all the phrase it received from others, we did and it was incredible! Loved all the architecture, the many famous sites, the ruins, the winding narrow streets, all the outdoor restaurants and of course their pizza!
Love hearing all about your experiences, and the photos are fantastic!
Glad you made it to Italy. Great pictures of the both of you. Wondered where you would stop in France on the way. Was guessing either Nice or Marseilles to break up the drive.
Sorry to hear that Italy isn’t living up to your expectations yet!! I hope the experience gets better.
I remember one of my friends went to France as an exchange student and she said the shower was in the middle of the room… no curtain!? Super weird!
Curious on your pass thru of France, since you went along the Southern coast…. Did you drive thru Camargue, specifically Les Saintes Marie de la Mer? They have wild white horses there that are supposed to be absolutely beautiful. I have a dream of seeing them one day.
Sounds like a beautiful drive, and I love Kevin’s method of learning the language!
We went right past Les Saintes Marie de la Mer. Wish I could have stopped and seen the white horses.
I love your pictures!
Thanks Margie!
Bathroom on display?! 😲
Of course you weren’t the easy one ordering. 😂
Interested to hear if the language via tv helps. It helped me some in Japan and have heard of it helping peops learn English.
Good luck!
Ordering is never easy with me 🙂
Can’t wait to hear more about your experiences in Italy. As you know, I am in love with Italy 🇮🇹! Our favorite city was San Gimignano. Are you visiting Florence? How about Venice?
Yep went to Florence yesterday and Venice is on the radar 🙂