Saturday, October 31

We drove from Florence to Genoa, Italy today with a quick stop in the town of Vezzano Alto. We spotted this town up on the hill when we drove to La Spezia on our way to the train station when we were going to Cinque Terre 5 days ago. So Justin spied it today whilst driving towards Genoa where we are spending the night to break up our drive to Grasse, France.

Vezzano Alto, Italy from the car.

We’re booting along the highway and he says “maybe we should explore one of those towns up in the hills?”, and I’m thinking “maybe not”, so I say “well, I think they look farther than they really are”. He says “well if there’s an exit soon lets take it and explore”. So of course there is an exit soon, just as we were approaching La Spezia. We’re at the toll booth now, with no idea of where to go. I hop out of the car as I see a lady in one of the manned toll booths, knock on the window and ask her what the name of the town up on the hill is. She tells me it’s Vezzano Alto, so we plug that into the gps and head on up. Of course it’s a windy, narrow, switchback road all the way up there.

A quick snapshot of the gps showing the switchback roads ALL the way up the hill.

We parked the car and got out and did a bit of exploring through the town. Walked through the church and found a stone look out tower. The kids of course grumbled upon getting out of the car but once we were walking around they enjoyed themselves.

Vazzano Alto, Italy, view from the village.

We then were headed to Portofino for lunch but stopped in San Michele di Pagana, a cute and very small little beach town. All we were looking for was some lunch and a nice spot to take a break, success with both.

On the beach in San Michele di Pagana, after lunch.

Arrived in Genoa at Alberto’s apartment, it was like staying at your long lost Italian aunts house. Artwork, doilies and sheets over the couches – it was perfect, a little taste of true Italian family life!  After walking to the local pizza places at 6pm and finding them closed we ventured back out at 7pm as one said it would be open…it wasn’t. So we hopped in the car and drove towards the water to find something open, after a couple stops and some direction from locals we found a great little pizza place where we had one of the best meals out in a while.

Our Airbnb in Genoa, Italy.