I felt a bit shallow choosing Genova because it was near the sea, but I don't anymore! The beaches are amazing! I'm not saying they're the No.1 holiday destination of all time, but they are perfect for 2 ragazze like me and Steff who love a good tan and hate to pay. Obviously you can pay for sun loungers etc, but why would you when it's totally free to lie on the rocks?! I can hear everyone thinking "Rocks? Why would you want to lie on rocks?!" Well, I'll tell you. Because it's like a massage and you don't get sand in your..ya know.
Camogli
This beach is for sure my fave - you have the perfect combination of glorious blue sea, smooth rocks, beautiful Italian buildings and the mountains!
Camogli was the second beach we went to - it's so easy it hurts. You get your ticket at the station (€3.40)and get on the train for approx. 18 minutes and you're there! Except that here you have to validate your ticket by stamping it. This makes it legit (surely buying it would do the same?! No.) Luckily, we remembered and got the conductor on the platform to stamp it. The second day, we weren't so lucky. We had 1 minute til our train got there, and the platform was a good run away. We ran to it, tried to stamp it in the machine and...nothing. But, it had a barcode so we just scanned it; light went green - perfetto. What wasn't so perfetto was the ticket man who said you don't scan it, you stamp it. An argument and €50 later, we found out that you can't scan your ticket.
FUMING.
hardly clear, is it?!
Anyway, we didn't let this get us down - the beach was incredible. Obviously I was feeling peckish though - luckily for me there are fruit stalls everywhere and I got the most fab peach ever! It was so big and juicy! One of my fave family holiday memories was in Tuscany with all of us eating huge peaches the size of your head and having the juice dribble down your arm...a scientifically proven way of knowing you've got a top peach.
The best
After some swimming, tanning and snoozing, we ventured off to some sort of Hawaiian beach hut and got ourselves an ice cream. As we walked through, they had wooden sofas and chairs with lovely cream cushions overlooking the sea. Steff and I chose a 4 poster chair/bed/den type thing and relaxed in the shade. It is scorchio in the sun!
Once we'd cooled off a bit, we went back down and my second have family holiday memory happened! The coconut man!
If you have been to Italy and not had the hilarious encounter with the coconut man, then I feel sorry for you. He is the best! They clearly all have their own calls. The one in Tuscany (forever my fave) shouted:
(insert italian accent here) "ANY COCOOOO - HALLOOOOOO - COCONUTSSSSS - WOOOOOOOOOO!!"
The one here shouts "COCOOOO - COCOOOO BELLOOOOO - COCOOOO FRESCOOOO!!" A classic.
Sadly, I had been fined and had no more money, so I had to laugh and admire from afar. One day though, one day.
Once the scorchio sun had become too much for us, we ambled back through the streets of Camogli.
I wanna boat.
Sneaky sea
Other than the fine - I am loving life! The tan is coming on nicely - not bad for September!
X
Oh - p.s, I saw Christopher Columbus' house. Ya know, as you do.
