Italy #1

Here I am again. I arrived back from a week in Italy at 7.00pm tonight - or should that be 19.30? I'll write about it bit by bit, otherwise you'll get sick of reading it all. This way you can take a break and you'll know where you're up to. So here is Part 1. It was a bit like a dream really. I've been briefly in Italy once before, but it still was just amazing, and there was always a sense of "Am I really here?" I left Poitiers on the train last Friday afternoon and met Louise when the train arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport. Now I knew that it was a big place, but when we found the shuttle bus to take us to Terminal 2G I didn't realise that we would be driving for about 10 minutes - practically to another town! Anyway, off we flew to Genoa and it was great to see Ian when we got there. (My brother, for anyone who doesn't know that.)One of the rugby chaps had driven Ian's car there and also took us back to where Ian lives. Which is in a little village called Bogliasco. In fact it's probably part of Genoa City, but I couldn't be sure of that. Genoa and the area nearby seem like a string of beads, with little villages and larger towns stretched all along the coastline.
On Saturday we slept in for quite a while. I don't know whether black out shutters are a good idea or not! Then we walked around Bogliasco,which is right on the sea front and just lovely. It seemed very authentically Italian to me. And to think I was looking at the Mediterranean Sea! We also walked along a coastal pathway to another little place called Nervy. All very picturesque, and I saw squirrels in a park! That night we caught the train into Genoa - Brignole Centrale station - and met one of the players from the rugby team. A very nice young man called Marco who spoke beautiful English. We went to a pizza place where a room had been booked to watch the All Blacks v Ireland. It was apparently the first time that the TV there had been tuned to rugby! Incidentally, all the young men from the rugby team were good looking and immaculately dressed - they all looked like North Canterbury farmers' sons in fact!
And as you know I'm sure, a good win to the ABs.
When it was time to leave, we discovered that the lovely balmy evening had turned to custard. Well, not actually custard, but torrential rain. We had no choice but to run through it to the station, which was a wee way away. We got utterly soaked to the skin, to put it mildly. And it brought out the first of the Umbrella Sellers we saw on the streets every time it rained after that. They were everywhere!
So we got home tired but happy. And very wet! The photos are of me by the sign saying not to bring your trumpet into Bogliasco, and one of Ian and me on our walk round the seafront. Sorry that Ian has his eyes closed - it must have been mid-blink. I will find one with his eyes open for a later bulletin! And I will put in one of a squirrel if requested to do so! :-)
So that's all for Part 1.
Happy birthday dear Hayden for the 16th. xxx