The air is fresh and crispy as I walk outside. The sun has not shone
down on these narrow streets in several hours but that is going to change soon
which means I do not have much time. The street Via Garibaldi, named after one
of the men who took part in the unification of Italy almost 150 years earlier
and usually crammed with colourful tourists and busy locals, is deserted. All
I hear are the beats of my steps and the distant noises of the city slowly
waking up. Then the stairs come. The first thirty or so steps are fine but
the next two hundred I can do without. Though I guess this short but intense
hike will secure some privacy up there. Still, the cobblestones feel endless, I
begin to sweat a little despite the morning cold, the muscles of my calves begin
to tingle and then, I am there. The sea fuses with the light blue sky and there
is a yellow shimmering glow where the horizon touches the humble mountains that
embrace Genoa. From this spot, a popular destination for lovers, I can see the
warm-coloured buildings from afar creating the intricate maze that makes up the
city. By the lack of clouds in the sky I can tell that it is going to be a
golden sunrise so I sit down and enjoy the view.
That was the third time I visited Italy that year. And I still had one
more visit planned at the end of the it. No longtime intentions of making that
a favorite destination. It just happened. Throughout my short life, I have continuously
had some of my most special moments while being in that south European gem. That
moment was one of them. I was doing an interrail trip during the summer with a great
friend of mine around southeastern Europe and that outlook spot was just too
perfect to pass up at sunrise (and at sunset as well sharing a cheap bottle of white
wine with my friend). My next trip down there I spent farther up north in fair Verona
during Christmas. Not my first visit though as my school had arranged a
short exchange program between my class and students from a Veronese high
school earlier that year. With the heart of an exchange student, I was
determined to make some true connections rather than making it a onetime thing.
And I did. I only spent five days in the home of “my Italian girl” but I did
not just befriend her; I got to know
the entire family so when two of my classmates and I began to plan this little Christmas
adventure, I knew I had a set place to stay.
Now, I have hundreds of moments from that week worth writing about so
naturally I have found one that involves some beautiful scenery, great people
and a nice message. One day we went to the sea, just me, my Italian girlfriend, her
father, her little sisters and her boyfriend. The family has an apartment near
the beach where they spend parts of their long summer vacation away from city life and it had to be shut down for the winter. While her father took
care of that, us kids walked to the beach. The parking spaces were all empty and the
apartment buildings blank. Though they may be bright during summer when bathed
in sun, the colours were like Tim Burton’s pallid suburbia under winter’s clouded
sky. The most impressive vision though was the deserted beach and its size when it is not covered in people and parasols. The sand was like an ocean itself
stretched out between abandoned fun parks on one side and the breaking waves on
the other. Obviously, we played. Ran around, searched for extraordinary
seashells and quickly touched the freezing water with the tips of our shoes.
And then, one of the younger sisters said something truly cool. I cannot
remember her exacts words but the essence was this: “Non siamo in spiaggia, siamo al mare.” which translates to: “We are not at the
beach, we are by the sea.”
Travel can be many things and for most it is the Eiffel tower, a walk
down Broadway or a busy museum. That includes me some of the
time. But being at the beach at that time,
somehow managing to fit a cylinder-shaped pole into a squared hole, jumping
over dried tree trunks and drawing in the sand, that is my favourite moments of
travelling. When your circumstances so quirky and unique that you never could have
imagined them. Letting even the simplest moments surprise and awe you. Though I
enjoyed that sunrise over Genoa very much, I had to look back at one of the
photos I had taken that morning to remember the details of the view whereas the
pastel colors of the empty beach are clear in my mind. Watching the sunrise
from the best outlook spot in town in one of Italy’s popular travel destinations was not as special as being at the sea on a clouded winter’s
day with your feet hurting from the cold. Travel can be many things but I do
not only want those experiences I can find in a magazine or on Instagram. I also want the ones that
can only come from the way my life is shaped.