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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 20, 2019 20:58:31 GMT
I so much appreciate the close attention to this thread from all of you, and especially how everyones comments enhance it with facts and details. That is a very high compliment, Fumobici ~ thank you. Maybe we'll all figure out a creative way to hit a city where none of us live for a grand Anyport meetup. Genoa seems like a good candidate. It's certainly a place to which I'd return. Next up is one of Genoa's jewels, the Aquarium. Built for Expo '92, it is the largest in Italy. The next three posts will be mostly fish. I give my blessing to just scrolling past, but hope you will all return to the thread afterward for the wrap-up to this long report on Genoa. Someone asked if I had visited the Staglieno cemetery. Yes I did (omg!) and it will get a thread of its own. Anyway, time for fish ~
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 20, 2019 21:17:41 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 20, 2019 21:25:35 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Jun 20, 2019 22:52:11 GMT
Oh, such beautiful fish! I feel guilty, as I love fish as creatures, but also admit to liking eating them...
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 21, 2019 1:58:24 GMT
I know what you mean, LaGatta! I used to like to fish, but once I kept fish in aquariums and ponds, I just couldn't do it anymore. Hypocrite that I am, I will eat them if someone else catches them. My Aquarium ticket included the Biosfera. I'd been eyeing it ever since arriving in Genoa, so was eager to get inside. Honestly, I was kind of disappointed. It was pretty small, didn't seem all that well tended, and except for a bunch of orchids and four or five birds, that was it -- no butterflies, even. That'll teach me to judge a bio by its sphere.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 21, 2019 2:10:59 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 21, 2019 2:19:13 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 21, 2019 6:05:24 GMT
Everybody knows that I am a sucker for aquariums since I have already shown the one at La Rochelle and also at the Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg. I have pencilled in plans for another aquarium this year, but now it will have to wait at least until September when school is back in session. So many underwater creatures look so otherworldly that I feel like I am visiting different planets.
The view from the Bigo is beyond spectacular. I pity people who try to avoid doing "tourist things."
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Post by bjd on Jun 21, 2019 7:06:54 GMT
I would only avoid the tourist thing of the Bigo because I don't like heights. Unfortunate because the view is indeed spectacular, especially Bixa's shot of the beige building with paintings on it (city hall?). However, it also leads me to wonder why on earth they built an overpass in the middle of that area, elevated like that. I understand traffic is a problem everywhere in cities but it looks like such a 1970s approach to city planning.
I have never liked aquariums, nor pictures of fish in National Geographic. Not sure why, but then I came upon Bixa's photo of the snake and scrolled by even faster.
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Post by mossie on Jun 21, 2019 16:19:08 GMT
I love the 'chocolate box' building jammed up against the elevated road, and that flaming o is a fabulous colour
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Post by lagatta on Jun 21, 2019 17:53:05 GMT
I just found one half of my favourite pair of earrings - silver filigree fishies. It had gone missing; suspect that Livia was playing with it - because it is shiny, not because it represents a fish.
I've just now understood the misspelled "She swead my new blue jeans" (which rhymes with New Orleans in the song)...
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Post by lugg on Jun 21, 2019 19:59:38 GMT
Ok ... off to plan a visit . So Genoa seems to have just about everything I love in a city and the aquarium - icing on the cake. I know this is wrong but the outside of the cathedral ( and some of the inside) reminds me of one particular liquorice allsort
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 22, 2019 0:08:24 GMT
So right about how alien fish seem, for creatures we take for granted our whole lives, Kerouac. It wasn't the kids who were a pain in the aquarium, rather the teachers with loud, quacking didactic voices. And they say Italian is a beautiful language! Glad I could provide a workout for your index finger, Bjd. I like going up high to take pictures and the Bigo is a great way to do that without having to climb. Because it's enclosed, you don't get that feeling of being able to go over the edge the way other high places can make you feel. Pretty stuff, huh Mossie? The fancy building is Palazzo San Giorgio. LaGatta, that fun bit of wall art has another level of meaning: Research on the trade of jean fabric shows that it emerged in the cities of Genoa, Italy, and Nîmes, France. Gênes, the French word for Genoa, may be the origin of the word "jeans". sourceThe ultimate compliment, Lugg ~ thank you! And yes, I had the same feeling about the stripedy cathedral. I hope my enormous fondness for Genoa has shined through. Again, get more of this wonderful city by visiting Fumobici's report. And here is an article I came across that lovingly lists how and why Genoa charms so effectively: www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/travel/genoa-italy-charm-alternative-rome-florence-venice.html
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Post by lagatta on Jun 22, 2019 0:34:28 GMT
Yes, I actually knew that about Gênes = jeans and Nîmes (denim) as words for workwear coming from sailors and dockers in those Mediterranean port cities.
The Scalabrini-founded centres have a lot on NYC, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, but I haven't found a lot there about NOLA, home to many Sicilians. Obviously I turned up stuff from other research, but I fear a lot of it is on worn-out floppy disk. v¸https://cmsny.org/publications/imr-immigrants-in-the-lands-of-promise/
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Post by lagatta on Oct 18, 2019 15:00:12 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 19, 2019 2:47:49 GMT
What a great article! Thanks, LaGatta. That is an informative and very cheerful read. It makes me want to stop mousing around & learn Italian so I could move to Genoa.
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