August in Italy

OK, let me just say it...my interest in blogging is inversely proportional to the level of humidity.  The more humid it is the more I just want to lay down and die, as opposed to actually doing something, like going for a walk, cooking dinner or...blogging.  I know that I've said before that I'm easily distracted, but when the humidity is over, say, 55% it sucks the soul right out of me.  You're probably thinking right now "what a weenie", well, yes, I am!  I come from a part of the world where we don't even think about humidity.  In fact, we consider ourselves to be quite superior to people who live where it's humid because we had the sense not to.  Well! I guess this is some comeuppance for me!  Not that this is the most humid place in Italy, I hear that Florence and Rome are much worse,  a good reason not to live in either place, but it can get pretty miserable here anyway. 

So, I've got to ask you.  Why would someone come to Italy in August?  Do you think they enjoy stewing in their own juices, or having their clothes adhere to their bodies like band-aids?  Don't they notice that the only other people in town are other tourists,  or that none of the stores are open?  That's because the Genovese have the sense to get out of here in August.  Do these people read??  I'm sorry, that last part was mean, but really, all the guidebooks tell you what it's like.

So here's the upside.  Since Genova is really a city that mainly Italian tourists visit, and all the Italians are at the beach, it means more space for us.  Case in point.  Because the humidity was low, we went to the Palazzo Reale or Royal Palace today, and nobody was there.  I've gone before only to turn around because of lines of tourists, but today it was just us, 2 brothers from France and a couple from Australia.  This is the kind of place you want to visit without a crush of people and being herded around like cattle.  We were lucky to be able to spend as much time in the rooms as we wanted, which was great because the place is just overwhelming!

The palace from the terrace

Located on Via Balbi, this was the palace King Ferdinand of the House of Savoy chose to be his residence in Genova just before Genova was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia.  It was first owned by the Balbi family, then the Dorazzo's and then to Ferdinand, and 1911 it became the property of Italy.

The garden pond from the terrace.

 This pebble work mosaic is called risseu and is very common in the courtyard of palazzos and churches.  It was often done by seamen who would collect small stones and pebbles and build these beautiful but delicate pieces of art.

Please ignore my foot.

Looking from the end of the garden back to the palace.

This beautiful old royal carriage is in an alcove near the entrance.

From the atrium looking up at the entrance to the apartment of the Crown Prince, the Duke of Abruzzi

...and the last interior photo I was allowed to take of the stairwell up to the royal apartments.

I am heartbroken I can't post any photos of the interior, although there is so much decoration and art, I wouldn't know where to start. There are paintings by Van Dyke, Tintoretto and Reubens, frescos by Parodi and Colonna, and exquisite pieces of furniture.  But I have a few favorite things, the gallery of mirrors, and the massive paintings on silk done with juice extracted from herbs.  But probably my favorite is the Queen's sitting room painted in robin's egg blue with gold leaf filigree.



Once again, YouTube to the rescue.  This video will give you an opportunity to see all of those things I would have photographed if I could.

Or not, here's a link to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv_CHC2Jpus&feature=channel. Hopefully if you paste it to your browser it will work!

The only down side of our excursion was an embarrassing squeak I developed walking around.  How does one develop a squeak you ask, I've got no idea...I just know it was as quiet as a tomb in there and every time I took a step I squeaked loud enough for people to notice.  I ended up walking on half my shoe until we reached some carpet that absorbed the sound.  I'm really not ready to start squeaking on a regular basis, so tomorrow I'm buying new shoes!

This has nothing to do with anything, I just like it.  From the garden of the palace.

I've also included this link in case you're interested in more information...in Italian, and because I have become so tech savvy.  http://www.palazzorealegenova.it/info/info.html