String City is for anyone visiting the Italian city of Genoa - without the usual travel guide stuff. A description of true Mediterranean atmospheres and captions of everyday life in Italy, for those who prefer to find their own way around - with the occasional nudge in the right direction.

29/09/2013

A Tour of the Forts Surrounding Genoa - Part 2

So you've reached the end of the first part of this tour of the forts in the hills surrounding Genoa. By now, you should have a good dose of fresh air in your lungs. That's good, you're going to need it. It felt like you were already on top of the mountain all this time. But there's a surprise just around the corner.

As you stand at the end of the path, turn your back on the road and the bar and look back the way you came. You'll see that there is another path going up to the right of the one you were on.



As you head up this pathway and disappear in the bush, you'll notice it just keeps climbing. Now, depending on how fit you are, doing it at a quick pace can be quite exhilarating. You feel like the mountain just keeps going up, and the further you go the more the North wind helps cool you down and seems to blow all your mental chatter away and soon it's just you and the hill. Here's what the path looks like during the first part:




The bush can get quite thick on the way up. The markings on rocks and trees are more confusing than anything. I've been up a number of times and I honestly think that it doesn't really matter which one you take, they all lead up the hill in the end. But to be on the safe side, I'd suggest always sticking to the path on the left hand side, since it seems to be the most direct route. After a while the trees and bushes start to fall back and you find yourself walking up the hill in what is usually long dry grass.




In the springtime the flowers in these parts of the mountain are incredible, but being autumn right now there are fewer of them. From this point on it is quite easy to follow the path up to the Forte del Diamante (literally Diamond Fort). As the wind constantly sweeps the mountainside and your heart races, as your legs start to feel seriously challenged for the first time so far, you look up and see this:



Yes, that's where you're headed, and it's further than it looks, but keep going, it's worth it. As you reach the top of the hill, almost at the same angle as the slope in front of you, you finally reach the outer rock wall of the fort, climb up the few steps leading up to the top of the walls, and take a moment to look around and catch your breath. The views that meet your eyes speak for themselves:



If you turn your back to the sea and look inland, you'll see both the Val Bisagno (on your right) and the Val Polcevera (on your left). These two valleys, which follow Genoa's two rivers inland, do not communicate much in everyday life. They are not directly accessible. To get from one to the other you either go all the way through the city, around the coast, and up the other side, or you get the highway (autostrada) which goes through a series of tunnels and gets you there much quicker. Yet from up here, they seem to all blend in to a single valley.



At 660 meters above sea level, you are high enough up to get some perspective on the city. Napoleon's troops were under siege in this fort in 1800 by the Austro-Piedmontese army. It was abandoned in 1914 and restored, to some extent, in 2005. You cannot go inside, but you can explore the outside for a while and just enjoy the views.



I'd suggest looking down that drop before lunch. It's a vertical shot with the lens pointed downwards. This is a great place to stop for a picnic and relax for a while before moving on with the tour. Also, the toughest climb is now behind you, so you can just think about enjoying the sites from here on.




If you go through the arch and around to the front of the fort (the part facing the sea) you'll get a breathtaking view of the Western part of the Ligurian coast. That's the part that goes towards the French border. The day I took these pictures it was a bit cloudy, but on a clear day you can see far along the coast, and from up here, on really clear days, you can even see Corsica on the horizon.



(to be continued)

19/09/2013

A Tour of the Forts Surrounding Genoa - Part 1


Sometimes, with the help of the weather, the holiday vibe doesn't wait for you to be on holiday to try and take a hold of you. Fortunately, the weekend is always just around the corner. One of my absolute favorite one-day escapes is the tour of the forts surrounding Genoa in the hills behind the city.

One such area is the Parco delle Mura, a nature reserve on the upper edge of the city. From the city center it only takes a few minutes to get there. By car it takes about 5 minutes, up winding, sometimes incredibly steep roads, and once you arrive there is always plenty of parking. On foot, you can climb the hill in about 20 minutes, maybe half an hour if you wanted to take it easy.

The best way to get there, especially if you are exploring the city for the first time, is on the Zecca-Righi Funicolare. Now Largo Zecca, the lowest station on the line, is easy to miss because it is tucked away in a corner. The best way to make sure you find it is if you go towards Largo Zecca from Piazza della Nunziata. At the traffic light, on your left hand side, behind another little road going up the hill and one disappearing around the corner next to it. In that hidden corner you will see the little sign for the station.



If you are claustrophobic, this is perhaps not the best alternative, but it is really worth the ride. These tiny two carriages take you up the hill through tunnels and in between houses and gardens. Some of the stations are on such a slope that the platforms are entirely made up of stairs. It takes about 10 minutes to reach the top, you get an "inside" view of parts of the city you would not see otherwise, and the whole thing only costs you 1.50 euro for a standard AMT bus ticket.



When you reach the Righi station, at the top of the hill, don't leave the station without stopping for a second on the terraces on the roof of the station to look out over the city and see how far you've come.



As you exit the station, you will see two roads on your left hand side. One going uphill and the other going down. Take the one going down, and immediately turn on to the path leading through the trees next to the tennis court. This path will lead you all the way to the beginning of your actual walk, without having to walk in the middle of the road and dodge the cars.



This path is quite interesting itself, it takes you first past the local archery club, and later, after keeping to the right where you come to a fork in the road (seen in the picture above), past another club that trains rescue dogs. Finally, while skirting the old city walls, on the outside, you will spot the first of the forts you will visit during the day. This one is called Forte Sperone, and as you come to the end of this first path, you will keep Forte Sperone to your left and continue up the road to your right.



This road soon turns to a dusty mountain path, which follows a large pipeline. It's ancestor, an ancient aqueduct, runs along a similar route, but further down in the valley. You will find plenty of people out here, most running or riding their mountain bike, a few walking their dogs. Along this road, you come to a fork: on the left you will find a trattoria, and a route that goes more directly up to the forts surrounding the city. I like to take the other route on the right. It is a bit longer, and later on it is even a bit tougher, but I think it gives you a better idea of the countryside in Liguria (in case you're wondering, that's the name of this region of Italy).



An hour after leaving Largo Zecca, if you look back towards the city this is what you'll see:



Not long after that, as the number of trees surrounding the path gradually increases, you come across something really surprising: the ancestor of the modern ice machine. The system worked like this: you dig a deep hole in the ground out in a cool, shady area of the mountain, pack compressed snow inside it during the colder months of the year (which then turned to ice), insulate the whole lot with straw and dry leaves, and sell it down in the city, carrying it down block by block on the back of a mule.

The neviera, as it is called in Italian, originally looked something like this:



What you see today, of course, makes you feel a bit more like Indiana Jones. There is no covering of any kind and the stone walls of the inside of the hole are just recognizable through the creepers and other plants growing in and around them. But if you look closely you can even see the small stairway that goes down one side to the bottom of the pit.



Back on the path, after about ten minutes you come to the end of the first part of the walk, just above a place called Trensasco. You will notice an actual road where you thought you were quite isolated from civilization, and even a small bar just a little way ahead.



(To be continued...)