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)