The Gelato Treaty of 2011

We got up at 6:00 to catch a 6:30 bus to the station, to catch a 7:28 train. I'm telling you, not being within walking distance to the train station is killing me! Not only does it take almost 25 minutes to get to the station, the buses are never on time here and round trip costs €2,80 which adds up! Not to mention all the trains in Italy require reservations. Which means we spend about €20 a day (per person!) to go on any day trips!! Our daily budget is only €60...so yeah. €20 to eat/see attractions/buy souvenirs/ etc. Italy is too freaking expensive!! Because of this and the fact we left the hostel before breakfast hours, for breakfast we had a banana and split a granola bar.

It took a train change in Pisa and about 3 hours train time to get to Genova from Florence. Its a beautiful harbor city, stretching along the coast and up the surrounding hills.

We didn't have any directions to the aquarium, other than knowing it was in the harbor area. So we just winged it and walked toward the smell of ocean. Sure enough we found the harbor!

I stopped and had a little personal pizza at a café. It was alfredo pizza and it was delicious! My first Italian pizza!

We found the aquarium and coughed up the outrageous €19/ person for tickets. (So much for today's budget!) It is built along a long dock right in the center of the harbor. The building is rather oddly shaped from the outside, but once you get in you realize the odd compartments outside are huge fish tanks inside!

The aquarium is the 2nd largest in Europe and I think 9th largest in the world (by gallons). They had sea cows (manatees), sharks, dolphins, seals, penguins, a sea turtle, and the general array of fish. They even had a 'Finding Nemo' tank!

It was really cool to see sea cows and dolphins in an aquarium! I love manatees, I love them even more by their other name "sea cow". :)

You can only walk one way through the aquarium and there were absolutely no benches! Personally, when I go to an aquarium I like to sit and watch the tanks. Its peaceful and beautiful. Here you sort of felt forced room to room by the flow of traffic and the distinct route you had to follow.

We got to see the dolphins get fed and do a couple of tricks. Then we watched the sharks get fed squid and fish. After that we left. It really isn't that BIG of an aquarium...they just have big tanks. Totally NOT worth €19/ person.

We went back to the café I had visited earlier so Heather could get some pizza too. And I had a second piece. She tried the olive pizza and I had a cheese piece with fresh tomato sauce. They were very good for a cheap price!

It was while we were sitting on the harbor eating our lunch that we reached the Gelato Treaty of 2011. Everytime I have pizza, Heather can have gelato or vice versa. Knowing we will each indulge in our favorite Italian snacks on a semi-regular basis over the next week, made this the best agreement. To mark the passing of our treaty Heather had chocolate chip gelato.

We got back to the train station by wandering around. However we thought our train was at 17:28, but it wasn't until 17:48! So we sat around for an hour til it arrived.

Due to some sort of issue with one of the passenger cars (the one we were booked on) the train official told us to go to another car but sit in the same seat numbers. We followed directions but there were already people in our seats. We told them we had a reservation and the gentleman got up, apologized, and went to another car. The woman, however, very rudely refused to move! I'm not entirely sure she even had a seat reservation to begin with! So I sat in the one seat and Heather had to stand in the hall...getting shoved around ever few minutes by passers by and the food cart. I wasn't going to have that, since I had napped the first train and she hadn't. I switched her and spent the next hour sitting in the hall glaring angerly at the rude woman. (And she knew it too, she kept nervously playing with her hair and side glancing at me) when she finally got off we took our rightful seats for the rest of the trip.

This is NOT the first rude person we have encountered. We have been in Italy for only two days and most of the people we have dealt with have not been very friendly. From people at the train station, to people at our hostel, to people just shoving you on the bus... it has not been a welcoming environment. Perhaps I am jaded by the bright eyed, eager to help, smiling faces of Scandanavians or something. But even the French and German were more friendly than this! I never thought we'd have ill-will from Italians. Who knew?

Made it back to the station in time to use our BOGO McDonald's coupon. Yeah that's how we roll! Then grabbed the last bus back to the villa.

Allbeit an expensive day, it was fun. Tomorrow will be glorious, since we are going to Venice!!!!

Safe Travels,
- Kit & Heather