We got up on Day 10, checked out of our hotel at La Spezia, and trotted back up to the train station to take the train to Genoa.
When we booked our hotels, we tried to find one in Genoa that would be ulta-close to the airport, since our flight was to leave at 7am on Day 11. We just wanted to relax on our last day, and have an easy access to the airport for the next morning. What we didn’t really count on was that Genoa wasn’t that great of a place to visit.
We arrived in the main train station and called the hotel. They didn’t pick up from the main train station, so we had to take another train closer to the hotel. After looking at the directions they posted online, I thought, let’s just go down one more train stop, which is (supposedly) “adjacent” to the hotel, and we can just walk.
We took the train, got off, crossed over the main highway on a passarella, and found ourselves in the middle of an industrial district; creepy warehouses and all. I thought – if we get mugged and killed in Italy, this is where it was going to be. We followed the road out toward the airport, figuring the hotel would be near the terminal. We found the Sheraton, but no MarinaPlace. We asked at the Sheraton and they told us to go back the way we came and go all the way down through the industrial/port district.
We walked for what felt like forever – through warehouses and small marinas. There were shipping cranes and containers piled everywhere. After about 30 minutes walked down the road on the backside of the airport, the warehouses broke open to a new part of the port with shops, restaurants, and YACHTS! Big, seafaring yachts! Billionaire yachts. They had apparently built up this yachting port in the middle of this awful shipping port.
We got checked into the hotel, which was very new and super nice, but by that time going back to explore Genoa was out of the question. We finally had gotten there, and we were stuck. We decided to go get some Gelato and walk around the port and look at the yachts. Then we came back and took a nap before dinner. After eating dinner at a pizzeria, we went back to our hotel and crashed.
The next morning, we got up nice and early (5am) and got ready to boogie out of Italy. We got our shuttle to the airport and took a small 50 seat plane to Madrid. At Madrid (one of the most incredible airports I’ve ever seen!) we had a bit of a layover to change terminals and shop. We then got on our plane and headed to the US.
This flight from Madrid to Dallas had to be the longest flight known to man. Because we were flying with the sun, we landed in DFW at 5pm, but it was 1am our time. We were absolutely exhausted. We got home, fell into bed, and had the longest night’s sleep we could have.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip, and one I will remember for a long time.