The next day the MSC Splendida docked in Genoa, Italy, arriving early in the morning. Juanda and I did a walking tour of the old town. This was the first "official" dual language (English and German) tour we were on. It seemed almost excruciatingly slow - having to wait on the guide to provide her spiel twice at each stop. In general, MSC's tour prices were very reasonable, but the groups were way too large, especially for walking tours. Having more participants on each tour certainly keeps the prices down, but at some point many people would be willing to pay more.
We first boarded a tour boat right at the ship and rode around the harbor along with our shipmates of all nationalities who were taking the city walking tour. There must have been about 200 (or more) on the small boat. We rode past the Marrioti shipyard where this ship (and others) were built before docking next to the large Genoa Aquarium. The walking tour was quite interesting (except for the German language part - and they probably felt the same way). We walked slightly uphill from the harbor a couple of blocks into the pedestrian area and went inside the black and white striped cathedral, which is home to a bomb from World War II that ripped through the roof of the church and never exploded. We also passed by many palaces and were surprised to see the statue in front of the opera house clad in a pink scarf honoring breast cancer awareness month. The large fountain outside the opera house was filled with pink water spraying into the air. Nice touch.
Our last stop on the tour was along Garibaldi Street, the furthest point from the harbor. This street is lined with beautiful old palazzos. Genoa was once a very rich city. One palazzo is now the city hall, and we saw several bridal pairs strolling down Garibaldi from their Saturday weddings at the city hall.
We went inside Palazzo Rosso, which is now a museum and home to several paintings by the Flemish (Dutch) masters. We saw a half dozen by Van Dyke, including some portraits and religious paintings. Leaving Palazzo Rosso, we walked back towards the Aquarium, and had about 45 minutes of free time. It was very sunny again, but cool and in the 60s, so Juanda and I stopped for a hot chocolate at a sidewalk cafe.
The boat ride back to the ship only took about 5 minutes since the ship was docked nearby. We were back on the ship shortly after 1 pm and ate a leisurely lunch with our books at our table in Villa Verde. The rest of the afternoon I napped and worked on my photos and cruise travel journal and Juanda took her book to the Topsail Observation Lounge. We also participated in the mandatory life boat drill, a little odd for our next to last day on the ship, but understandable since Genoa has the most passengers boarding.
The next day would be our last port of call, Marseille, and our fifth country in six days, France.
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