This morning I went shopping to via S.Vicenzo, which is a sort of pedestrianised street behind via XX Septembre. There's a bakery called Mario's which is apparently famous in Genova for its focaccia. I tried some, it was pretty good, but to be honest I can't really tell the difference between the focaccia there and from the local bakery. It all seems pretty good to me. And full of lovely olive oil and salt.

I also got some Veneto salami to try, and some Tuscan prosciutto crudo which looked really good.

Last night was very emotional for Italian football fans, it was the last game in the national team for Roberto Baggio, one of Italy's best players of recent times. He won't be picked for the squad to play at the European championships, much to the disgust of some fans. In La Gazzetta dello Sport this morning there was a photo of some fans holding up a banner which said:

Portogallo
Porto Baggio

which I liked.

Spent most of today chasing bureaucrats, so to speak. I went to open a bank account, finally having decided that I have learnt sufficient Italian to do this, where everything was going well until it turned out my tax number doesn't map correctly to the name printed on my passport. This is because my passport has my middle name on, but it wasn't written on my form for a tax number. This was sufficient to screw the whole process up, despite there being no doubts about my identity. Anyway, they opened an account provisionally, but I have had to apply for another tax number. I don't get bank card until I have been paid, I then have to go back to the bank and apply for it and wait for it to come in the post. So I could be in the amusing situation of having all my pay in the bank and no way of getting at it. Oh, and you have to pay to keep an account here, and you can only use that bank's cash machines. They're stuck in the 80s.

Added to this is the fact that Alessandro, the professor I'm working with, apparently doesn't actually have the money to pay me yet. This is purely a paperwork problem, but means more waiting and form filling before I get any cash. I've been here almost a month now.

While I was in the swing of it, I also wrote a letter in German to my landlady in Karlsruhe, who still hasn't paid me back my € 600+ deposit a month after I left the flat impeccably clean - a lot cleaner than it was when I moved in..

Grr. Will have to buy some more ham to remain calm. I'm sure that's what the Italians do.

Went to Claudio's last night for pasta arrabiatta, which was very very arrabiatta, and some watching of Monty Python DVDs. I failed badly to provide the proper British background. e.g:

"Who was Stanley Baldwin?"

"I think he played on the wing for Blackpool, single handedly won an FA cup final. Er.. no, wait a minute.."

etc.

Have just got the tax i paid in 2003 back from the German tax office.
yippee!
Must send it to a more suitable account before I spend it all on ham, pizza and beer.

Went out for pizza with a flatmate and a few other people last night. Ate 1 and 2/3 large pizzas. That's quite a lot. I will return to the UK fat. Or at least not underweight anymore.

You can get pizzas with carpaccio and fresh rocket on them. Or German sausage, spicy salami, fresh anchovies. Yum.

Properly warm here now. Spent most of the weekend sitting or walking somewhere near the sea. Took a bus out to Nervi, the extreme western suburb of Genova, on Saturday. There's a well known walkway along the rocky seafront there. Of course it's full of cafes, pizzerias and gellaterias as well.

Good news - the Genova Bavarian beer festival starts on 29th April..

Put 4 slightly surreal photos from the mountain last weekend here. Not much in the way of views. It's a lot sunnier now though.

It's really spring here now. 23 degrees (according to the digital display outside the pharmacy) and nice and sunny, with a crisp breeze off the sea. Am working today, but have plans for tomorrow which involve the purchase of more Tuscan salami, prosciutto crudo, focaccia and shellfish, and then some sitting on a beach.

There are also plans here for Sunday to start a series of outdoor summer screenings of films in the courtyard of the department using DVDs and a data projector.

There are two football teams in Genova. They both play here. The teams are called Sampdoria and Genoa. I have decided to support Genoa, because of the many parallels to Palace:

• Palace play in red and blue. Genoa play in red and blue. And white.
  
• Genoa is the oldest football club in Italy. Crystal Palace are the only founder members of the FA still playing in the league under their original name.
  
• Both clubs were founded by Englishmen
  

Actually, the divide here works pretty much along the lines of man city/man u. The locals in the city almost all support Genoa, and Sampdoria are supported by people from the surrounding area, and further afield, who just want to support a side that wins a lot. Having said that, Samp. have had a pretty poor time recently. When I last saw them, in the last game of the season last year against Venice, they were rubbish, but it has since become clear that Venice bought that game to make sure they stayed in serie B. That happens a lot in Italian football.

Didn't get to the gig last night - Claudio, my lift into town, pulled out of going.

Have just been called up to go to a gig tonight, featuring a band who cover 50s Italian communist songs in a Ska style. The photos will have to wait..

Decided to climb one of the mountains surrounding Genova this morning. The youth hostel is halfway up one of the big ones, and you can take a bus there, so I did that and then walked the rest of the way, which wasn't all that far. Unfortuantely, from the top of the mountain, I couldn't see much. It was too foggy. There are some old forts on the mountain top, but they aren't very well maintained, and not really open to the public either. There are no signs telling you anything about them which is a shame because they look interesting. I walked across the top of the hill to Righi, which is at the top of a funicular railway line. There's a restaurant there where you can eat dinner and look out over the city. I just had a coffee though, and then went down on the funicular. It's very cool. For one thing, the line is so steep the carriages have steps in them. Also, you have to go through a long steep tunnel. Eventually you end up in Piazza Zeca, quite near the centre of town.

Photos later..

Added two more Genova photos.

Bought a ciabatta for my room. A ciabatta is not just a kind of Italian bread, it's also a 4-way extension lead. And also, a slipper. Anyway, I can now play music in my room, and charge the batteries in my camera, and my phone, and use my laptop and have the desk lamp on. So life is good. Oh and the new Squarepusher album is great, thanks for that Laura and Alex.

Also bought some amazing tomatoes. In fact, all tomatoes here are amazing. Why do we (in the UK) put up with the crap they give us in Tescos? The greengrocer was strictly old school, in the style of G.W.Steel and co.. The proprietor stands out on the shop floor and asks you what you want and picks out your fruit and veg for you. But you can't just say 'half a kilo of tomatoes please', you have to get into a real chat with him, and wonder out loud if you should take some more, and if you want these blood oranges or these spanish oranges that are fresh today and great for spremuta. Then you go and pay his wife behind the counter. Very good Italian practice. I also got some crudo di Parma from another shop, which was astonishingly cheap but not as good as the deli next to Luca's place, and some salami Milanese. Which is great. Things I still can't find: shower gel, English tea, apple juice, museli.

It's raining today. Only light spring rain, but disappointing al the same. Or perhaps not: I'm going to have to spend most of this weekend finishing a workshop paper (the deadline was.. er.. last Thursday), so better that it's not beautiful and sunny outside. Professionally, things here in Genova look very promising, so I'm not all that annoyed about working over the weekend.

The group here is off for aperitivo to a nearby bar tonight. I'm going to bravely put aside my vital workshop paper and join them. An anthropologist must stick to his task, however onerous.

Finally managed to negotiate the purchase of an Italian SIM card for my phone. It won't work until tomorrow apparently, and they don't tell you the number either so you have to find out for yourself (by calling someone). Strange how different the whole deal is even with the same company in different countries. Here, I had to show my passport, but not prove my address like I did in Germany.

Anyway, I'm feeling that sense of achievement you get from performing tasks that would be completely trivial in your own country but are really tough when you don't speak the language. Celebrated by Buying More Ham.

Mia nuova casa

Moved into my new flat yesterday. It's about halfway between the Brignole railway station and the university, at the bottom of the hill the engineering faculty is on top of. It has a balcony with a view of lots of other balconies. And some trains and mountains. It seems very nice. My room is small. It looks like this. Except not as dark, the bright window made the rest of the picture that way.

My flatmates, Battisina and Sandra, seem like nice people. Living there should certainly be good for my Italian.

Just read this on my German bank website (which is also the German post office)

Außerdem gab Konzernvorstandsmitglied Dr. Hans-Dieter Petram auf einer Pressekonferenz in London die Eröffnung eines neuen Briefsortierzentrums im südlich von London gelegenen Croydon bekannt. Ausgestattet mit modernster Sortiertechnik wird damit die bisherige Produktionskapazität verdreifacht. Die rund 160 Mitarbeiter können nun bis zu 7,5 Millionen Sendungen pro Monat bearbeiten.

I think the implication is that ruthlessly efficient German sorting machinery has tripled the capacity of my local sorting office. This can only be an improvement.

The gate of the city walls that I took a picture of yesterday has an inscription in Latin, dating from the 1100s and translated on a sign nearby:

"In the name of the Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I am guarded by men and surrounded by extraordinary walls, and with all my might drive back enemy forces. If you have come in peace, you may touch this gate, but if you have come seeking war, you will be repelled, disillusioned and defeated."

I like to imagine a king riding with a marauding army of 1000s up to the gate, stopping to read the sign slowly in faltering Latin, and then turning round and leading his men home again..

Bona Pasqua!

More photos. We have some (low quality) photos from the last night in Karlsruhe, some from the journey from Karlsruhe to Genova, and a mixture of photos from Genova itself.

Today is very quiet, Easter is a serious holiday here. Most of the shops and bars and restaurants around here are shut. I went into the city to take a look round the old town, and discovered where everybody was: walking around the Porto Antico, or queuing for the ferry to San Fruttuoso, the monastery we walked to during the week. The ferry starts running on Easter weekend, so everyone was taking the chance to get round there in the beautiful weather we have today. I'm glad we managed to visit it before the tourist crowds moved in.

I also gave directions to Piazza De Ferrari to a German couple. It was nice to speak a foreign language and be understood again. I'm still right at the beginning with my Italian.

Just discovered the computer with the sound card. It's not my one unfortunately, but since nobody else is here, I can now play John Peel shows from last week loud through the speakers..

Pictures from our walk from Camogli to Porto Fino are ready here. It was a really lovely afternoon. The walk took about 5 hours in all, but we weren't really hurrying. When we arrived in Porto Fino we had a large beer in a cafe with seats on the main Piazza. The tourist season hadn't really started, so all the cafes and trattorias were pretty empty. They were quite pleased to see us, which they probably wouldn't have been in the middle of July.

The photos from Amsterdam are up. It was a fun weekend. The "Restaurant Croydon" was a bit bemusing though. The guy who worked there had no idea why it had that name.

The best thing about Italy so far is the food you get served with your drinks. If you order even just a couple of glasses of wine in a cafe, you're more often than not given a pile of focaccia, crisps, nuts, cheese and ham to eat. Every bar has slightly different things, like spicy breadsticks or popcorn or fresh tomatoes with herbs. And it's all free. Very civilized indeed.

Can't upload any photos right now as the Edinburgh fileserver is down for the day.

It's raining today, the first time since I arrived. Planning to look for an Italian SIM card later, if the shop is open on good friday afternoon.

I've got a whole raft of photos to put up, from Amsterdam, the last night in Karlsruhe, the trip here, the workshop and our walk yesterday from Camoglie to Porto Fino, which was fantastic. It's through a sort of national park on the peninsula, and has several routes which take you through tiny villages and over mountains and down to a monastery that is only accesible by these paths or by boat. Really great.

Anyway, I have some urgent work to finish, so I'll be sticking the photos up during breaks over the next few days. For now, here are two from yesterday's walk: a view back towards Genova, and a picture of Fiona on an outcrop overlooking the monastery.

here is a picture of us drinking coffee in the Trattoria Ugo after my birthday dinner. it was a very nice evening.

Have found a small room in a flat near the Uni., it's not ready til next week (i.e. just after easter) which is a pain.

more soon.

my birthday!

thanks to everybody who sent a card or an e-card. I opened them just now.

Flathunting in Genova is very hard. It seems everything available is very expensive. This would be ok if it was the going rate, but everyone else in the department rents rooms for € 250 ish, whereas being a foreigner and staying only 6 months and arriving at (apparently) the wrong time of year, i'll be paying in the region of € 400, which seems pretty steep. That's just for a room in a shared flat as well. My whole bedsit flat in Karlsruhe was only € 330, so I'm having trouble adjusting..

The other depressing thing is you have to pay one month's rent to the agency as a fee. So € 400 straight down the drain, not like a deposit that you get back, just a one-off charge. If you're going to stay 3 years maybe it's not so bad, but it's a bit rough for me.

On the plus side, lots of friends from Edinburgh are arriving in Genova today for a workshop which starts on Monday, so we'll be able to go out and celebrate my birthday. I booked a restaurant last night. Well, I hope I did. We'll see what happens when we turn up there tonight..

Banks: Suck here too. I never realised that my UK account was such a good deal. In Itay, you can't even have an account for free, and you pay for everything you do. In Germany, at least they only charged you to use other people's cash machines.

Computers are much better in the Uni. Genova. Even though they have no support staff, and just manage them themselves, things work which didn't in Karlsruhe, like ssh key generation. This is important for visitors.
I'll have to build xemacs again though..

Flats all the rental flats in Genova seem to be under the control of a "casa mafia", who we're going to go and visit later..

Snobby brits will particularly enjoy this (American) list of the 100 most frequently mispronounced (American-)English words. I particularly like the idea of pronouncing Heimlich maneuver as 'Heineken remover'

(via /usr/bin/girl)

So. Breakfast with the nuns was nice. Didn't get up in time for vespers, or yoghurt of an acceptable flavour for that matter. However, I did find someone to help me with the espresso machine - molto importante. I'd actually not stayed in an Italian hotel before - i've always been either camping or in a youth hostel. For breakfast we got yoghurt, espresso and croissants, which is fine by me.

Last night I ate in a place very close to the Instituto Suore Marcelline, it was a sort of pizzeria and tex mex thing. My first ever beer in Italy was a pint of Warsteiner, the only beer they had on tap and a beer I must have had half a dozen times in Germany. Actually, they did have one other beer on tap, Tennant's Super (9% b.v.)! I've never seen that stuff on tap before, I'm suprised it doesn't fuse the delivery tubes or something. Even tramps have been known to push it aside.

After dinner I had a look at the town from the seafront, the beach in town is a bit of a mess, but you can watch ships going in and out of the port with all their lights on in the sunset which is very pleasant.

Have to start a flathunt today, it might be hard to find something near the uni. Also have to learn Italian - and fast.