Genoa, day 1

A pretty morning ... spent exploring bits of Genoa that I don;t really know, and realizing that other people are traveling with even more cumbersome things than I seem to be.

First to the over-the-top gilt and polychrome marble of the Santissima Annunziata del Vastato,

and then through a maze of little alleys in the old town, where there were more sex workers in broad daylight than in Pigalle 50 or so years ago ... I realized that it's such a notorious area that there's a famous song about it by Fabrizio de André.  

Guarded by two nineteenth century sad-eyed lions, this was all grey and white stripes, and I'm shocked that somehow I missed it when I was here before.

Different sorts of wall painting down by the old port,

and back down another none too respectable street, the Via di Pré, which had more good wall art,

and a number of sentiments expressed against mass tourism.  I take their point about cruise ships, utterly;

and I suspect that Air BnBs have had the same inflationary effect on local housing costs as in so much of the rest of Europe.

On the other hand, back in the vicoli, earlier, I was - given what I'll be talking about at the conference here - absolutely delighted to see a graffitto of a Snail.

And that was it for exploring, because it was - it had to be - a working afternoon and evening.