As you may remember, we had planned to spend some time in south central Italy, obtaining citizenship for John. The process to get to that point took more time than expected, so we were left with nowhere particular to be. We don’t know much about the north of Italy – a couple of trips to Milan, Venice, Bologna – so we thought we’d spend a few months learning more. Not exactly out of a hat (but closer than you might think), we chose Genoa, a town along the Italian Riviera. And – if we do say so ourselves – we picked a winner!
Kitchen and Bathroom
Our flat in the palazzo (get used to this, because we’ll be saying it a lot – but also, see below) is on the corner, so there’s great light in the kitchen. There are a good number of pots and pans, a few things left in the cupboard and a basket with goodies from the landlady, which always warms the heart. Especially when you are in Italy and the goodies include prosecco! The fridge is nice-sized (huge for Europe) and the gas burners a delight. The kitchen table isn’t hugely comfortable but we suspect we’ll spend a lot of time here anyway, because the light is so great. Also, did you notice that floor?
The bathroom is small but very up-to-date, with even a bathtub, a rare and delightful thing, and a heated towel-rack. Excellent hot water, all the mod cons.
Living Space
The door opens out into a great room, with good light, a comfy sofa (so, so rare in rental flats!) and a big TV with lots of channels. The flat has lots of personal touches – vintage lunchboxes, old radios and a typewriter, and car magazines. Not every one of these would have been our choice but we like having things to look at.
And here’s that floor again with, as Homer would say, large dancing-spaces. We don’t know quite what to do with this abundance of square meterage yet, but we’re working on it.
And then there’s the view. We love being in the middle of everything! (Note for the noise-sensitive – this location in Genoa is not for you). If you want to get a sense of what our place looks like from the outside, it’s pretty close to the building on the right. But maybe even better.
Bedroom
Here is where things get the tiniest bit weird. To be fair, the pictures and description of the flat were not misleading. Next to the sofa is a staircase that leads up to the loft where we sleep. Which has a bed and closet and the usual stuff. Comfy bed, not-great light for reading (the lamp you see off to the left doesn’t seem to work), good closet space.
Also, this. The loft is not terribly high-ceilinged, which is ok as we are not giants. And right in the middle of it there is a beam. Which, clearly, dozens of people have banged their heads on. So – since a picture is not always worth 10000 words, what you are looking at above is one of several pads placed on the beam so that if you do forget to duck and bang your head you will not get a concussion. We are facing the bed in this picture, looking out over the loft with the staircase to our right. So far we have hit our heads countless times, but with minimal damage. Note: this only affects those getting in or out of bed; the low beam is about where your feet would be if you were lying in the bed. So getting dressed etc. causes no trouble.
Further on Location
As you may remember, here in Genoa we live in a palazzo. Or rather, a teeny bit of one. One entrance to it is a little grubby. So we usually use the other entrance, our featured image. From the giant statue you take a left, past the sign that says no tourists in three languages. and up a staircase to a big fancy door. From the top of the stairs, it looks like this:
We don’t know anything about the building yet, except that it’s on Via Garibaldi with all the other fancy palazzi in Genoa. The ground floor is full of solicitors and we haven’t met any neighbours yet. Still, this confirms what a wise friend told us years ago: you can always rent better than you can buy! (The Genoa flat is now seriously in the running for best rental yet. See Bonaire for its strongest competitor…)
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