12th March 2019 p.m.
Part 2
My hotel front doors were firmly bolted, but then I noticed a large sign inside one of the doors pointing me in the direction of an hotel a few steps up the road. Outside that one I walked up the three steps covered in a little red carpet and found myself in a Belle Époque style reception area with smiling staff behind a desk. A little poster on a wall told me the hotel was built in 1897: Grand Hotel Savoia.
I was welcomed and told I had been upgraded from the booked hotel, and was soon checked in and shown to a lift up to my room. The room was large and beautifully furnished in what must be the style here - and the room number was the same as my own little home in the South of England. That seemed like a good omen.
I unpacked, read the hotel book details
and discovered that on the 7th floor was a terrace, with views. That needed to be seen before going out to the Porto Antico and proved really worthwhile.
I could see a great deal of the bay around Genoa and, hooray, ferries down in the harbour and shipyards. I could see the airport runway and even the back half of a plane taxiing back to the terminal, as I had done a few hours before. The sky was a glorious blue and the calm around me was such a contrast with home, and memories of being almost blown off my feet a few times when walking back from my village recently.
Before leaving the 7th floor terrace I noticed that the room behind it contained several ship models, and I imagine this was part of the hotel's conference room facilities.
My next plan was to go down to the waterside and walk along to the Porto Antico part of this little city, get something to eat and then walk up to the funicolare station that I particularly liked, which goes between Zecca and Righi. It costs just Euros 1.50 each way and celebrated being 120 years old in 2017. I enjoyed walking amongst tourists and locals, before buying my ticket and admiring the posters.
The ascent is in a tunnel at first before emerging into daylight; it is very steep with calls at 5 stations. The 'down' funicolare is balanced with the ascending one and they pass at the stations in the middle where the track divides for short distances. I read that the rise from bottom to top is 915 feet.
The views from the top were wonderful; I could see across the bay in one direction and then down into the shipyards in another.
I enjoyed seeing one of the posters on the outside wall, and noticed the ship belonging to Quail cruises shown. I can remember that ship actually being there in the harbour many years ago and taking my own photograph at the time.
I walked home again along Via Balbi and remembered staying in a small hotel along here once. I had been astonished at seeing the pictures painted on the ceiling of my room in what was once a small palace. I think it had suffered water damage over the years but most of it was lovely. That little hotel seems to have disappeared, perhaps amalgamated into the University buildings that now line part of the street amongst the coffee bars and shops.
Back at the hotel I took photographs of my surroundings and then enjoyed some offerings from the Bar Royale, whilst listening to the talented pianist in the main Lounge playing to hotel guests and visitors.
Ships seen: Scarlet Lady, of Virgin Voyages, GNV vessels in the ferry terminal area, yellow-hulled Corsica-Sardinia ferries down in the shipyard.
To be continued...
