Am back In Genova after an amazing day yesterday. I had heard about a pub in Torino showing the Palace/West ham play off match on a Palace email list. So I took the train there, walked to the pub where I found two blokes in Palace shirts standing outside. Turns out the pub was still closed, no sign of the owner who had promised to be there an hour before the match. By this time it was 15 minutes to kick off. This was the worst part of the day by far - I really thought I was going to have come all the way on a hot crowded train for nothing. But, about a minute before 4pm the owner arrived, and had the place unlocked a couple of minutes into the game. By that time I had established I was the only Englishman there, all the others were Italian fans of English football. Everyone was very friendly, to the limits that team loyalties would allow, and we shared chips during the match and talked about games we'd seen and stuff. With only ten of us there, I had an excellent view of the big screen for the whole game, which was an agonising experience, Palace had some good chances but so did the hammers and it was really in the balance. About an hour in, Palace got lucky as Andy Johnson found some room to shoot and the keeper couldn't hold it, and our captain Neil Shipperley was in the right place to bundle it into the net. Then followed a long, long half an hour as West Ham had two offside goals (correctly) disallowed and a decent penalty shout turned down, but in the end, it was our day. There's a photo of me celebrating with Andrea and Carlos, the two brothers who arranged the meet-up, here.

After the match, everyone went for a smoke in the park by the river, and talked about the great victory/egregious defeat. Andrea and Carlos invited me to stay at there place and go out in Torino that night; naturally I accepted, and we had an excellent Italian meal with their family (pasta first course, meat and salad second, fresh strawberries from their country house and then Andrea's birthday cake to finish). Andrea's father only half joined in - he was busy watching Palermo winning promotion to Serie a on TV.

At about midnight we went into town and the brothers showed me all the stuff I'd missed on my last visit, like the 'Polenta Palace', a building that starts about 5 metres wide and thins down to less than a metre at the end. It was designed by the same guy who built the Mole Antonelliana. And the palace with a cannonball still wedged into one wall. We also tried some "gianduja" ice cream, chocolate with fine ground toasted nuts, a Torino speciality, bought from what is apparently the most famous Gelateria on the Via Po. All the while cars were driving by waving Palermo flags and shouting, and we were waving back and shouting about Palace. It was an excellent night. Andrea had to go to Bologna the next day, so I got a very early train home, and spent today on the beach resting..

mark was official photographer for the visit last weekend, his (unedited) photos are here

I have a couple to add - my version of the top of Monte Porto Fino shot and a picture of Porto Fino at night

am in a flat in torino, digesting a huge "impromptu" family meal with two brothers who are palace fans I met at the game (which palace won one-nil :-)

are about to head for the turin pubs with said brothers, excellent hospitality. really glad I bothered to take the two hour train ride here, there were 6 palace fans and 4 hammers fans, all italian though, hearing italains imitate the cockeny accent for "i'm forever blowing bubbles" is very funny.

bad punctuation is due to italian keyboard..

more soon

computers here still very broken, so news of my trip to torino with mark will have to wait until next week. have heard that my corrections for my phd thesis have been signed off though, just have to get the thesis bound now. may be in turin tomorrow again to watch the palace/west ham game.

mark also has photos from turin, they'll be here next week hopefully..

When you buy a ten euro top up card for your Vodafone mobile in Italy, you only get 8 euros of credit. They keep 2 euros just for the hell of it. That's 20% down the loo, and they always take 20% no matter how large a top up card you buy. I'm finding it slightly difficult to swallow, despite the fact that it's not a huge amount of money, at least not at the rate I use my phone. I just don't like to hand over cash for nothing.

I almost got paid yesterday, but the finance department decided to go on strike on Friday. In Italy strikes are always on Friday, and occur more often during the summer when the weather is nice. So I might get paid next Tuesday or Wednesday, after which I will have to go down to the bank and try and persuade them to give me a bank card so I can actually get the money out. They're paying me the entire amount of my 5 month contract in two installments, one now and one at an unspecified future date. Very weird.

Next week, the computers in the lab are being re-arranged and reorganised, so it will be closed for a few days. So, no blog updates. I'm taking the opportunity to go to Torino with Mark..

Found some potential language practice partners today. Need to get down to work on that..

Have found the internet feed for Test Match Special :-) the computers here are broken today, you can't log in, so no reason not to listen to the cricket on my laptop all day..

Marine was here on Tuesday night, we walked into the old town and found a bar with seats outside on a quiet little piazza. Had a bottle of fine pinot grigio and tried cima Genovese, Marine had the torta di riso which is also a local dish. The proprietor was very friendly and enjoyed explaining what everything on the day's menu was, and as usual it was very good value. We went down to the beach after dinner to watch the night ferries leaving. They all leave at about the same time, all lit up all over the deck, good to watch.

Just had the very best idea *ever*. So in Elizabeth David's magnificent 'Mediterranean Food' there is a quote about a tiny hotel in Vaour, in the French countryside, called the Hôtel du Nord. You can read the quote on Mark's pages. It's really quite priceless, almost as good as the Venetian Breakfast. I was looking on the web today and it seems the actual hotel from the quote is now available to rent as a gîte, with space for 12 people, and the original huge kitchen and dining room. So here's the plan: book the place for a week in the early autumn or late spring, take 11 good friends, and recreate the meal using local ingredients from the markets mentioned on the webpage. You could go on to recreate the Venetian Breakfast, and then possibly the famous all-day hare recipe.. what a fantastic way to spend a week..
I'm sure the Maitre du Gîte will be interested in us directly he finds out we know how people should breakfast.

Megan was here at the weekend, had a great time relaxing on the beach and by the sea in Nervi and taking very long lunches. Pictures here.

Pictures from the forts where I was walking at the weekend.

Another corruption scandal has broken in Italian football. This time it's match fixing in order to make money at the bookies. Serious money. The Neapolitan mafia are said to be involved (are they vanilla, strawberry and chocolate falvoured?). You can read about it in the Gazzetta here - but in a way, it's not news to the Italians. They all know their football is corrupt, they just try hard to ignore it in order to continue to enjoy going to the games, which is sad. With the players they have and the tradition of football in Italy, the tifosi deserve better.

My #%*!^$* German landlady has charged me 100 Euros for '1 hour cleaning and painting'. I left that poxy flat twice as clean as it was when I arrived, and I was careful not to put anything on the walls that might upset her precious paintwork. Of course I can write to her and protest, but since I'm out of the country now, she knows she can keep the money. Landlords are just the same in every country, i.e. parasitic scum.

Today I did the walk between the four forts on the mountains around Genova. There are loads of forts in the mountains, but these particular four form a well known walk, and you don't have to go through any of the city between them, you can stay on the ridge of the hills. It was a beautiful day, despite suncream and hat I look like a man who spent the day in the sun. I took some nice photos too, I'll put them up soon.

On saturday I watched some of the prologue of the Giro d'Italia. That's Italian for the Tour de France. Not many household names take part in it, because they rest ahead of the tour these days, but it was fun to watch anyway. They start the cyclists off from underneath the victory arch in the centre of town.

Must start looking for somewhere showing the play-offs, now Palace have qualified. My Dad was the first to text me the news, while I was ordering a spremuta and focaccia in Righi at the end of the walk.

Italians go for a walk like this: put on designer tracksuit and plenty of perfume/aftershave, and carry a radio playing the commentary to the football. In one couple I saw, the chap had even trained his girlfriend/wife to carry the radio.

(That's enough corrections - Ed.) I've finished the thesis corrections. Think I'll take the day off tomorrow, and then read it again on Monday before I send it off to Jacques to check over. Claudio and Jacopo have also had some research success today, so we're off for cocktails and apperitivo.. negroni is becoming my Italian cocktail of choice.

Someone came to this blog yesterday after searching google for "naked germans". Quite disturbing.

Only six more corrections to make to my thesis... I promise my blog will become more interesting after I've finished. Really.

From the window of my room, you can see about 100 metres away a large dome on top of a church. At the base of this church are many flowers, ribbons and notices tied to the railings. It was here that the caribinieri shot and killed a demostrator during the protests surrounding the G8 summit in 2001. There is still a lot of graffiti all over Genova referring either to globalisation and related stuff, or to alleged police brutality during the protests. Recently, i saw a group of protestors meeting in a cafe near to the site of the killing for a protest, I guess because it was mayday (the anniversary is not until the 20th July). I stayed a long way out of the way. The carabinieri are trained by the army, and I've heard a lot of stories about them since I arrived. None of them are positive stories.

More rain - what's going on? I'm now being blamed by the rest of the department - the Scottish weather has followed me. Ma il tempo sta per cambiare, mark my words. It's supposed to be nicer at the weekend.

Baths in genova are a little strange. They are very short, and have a step in them, the idea is that you sit down on it. Then there are no shower guards, to stop the splashing I mean. You don't hang the shower on the wall and stand under it, you hold it in your hand and blast your face with it. In my case, due to a lack of practice, you also blast the surrounding walls, the mirror, the floor, your towel, the loo roll etc. It's quite difficult to master. Washing your hair is even more difficult. Once you can't see, it's very hard to be aware of where all the water is going. Fortunately, I usually take a shower last in our flat, so that bathroom has several hours to dry before anybody else sees it.

Rain prevented me from walking across Genova's four mountain forts this weekend. I want to go when it's clear to get a good view over the city. Instead, practised Italian with my flatmates, and did more thesis corrections. Should be finished soon.

Andy Johnson takes a penalty - saved - scores the rebound! Thank you, BBC world service. I wonder if I can find a pub showing the playoffs?