Day 34 lala? no one of the others?

An early and grey day see me on the yellow line from the local metro Turati to Centrale FS the stazione!

Back through it's beautiful arch ceilinged lobbies to platform 21 and the train south to Genova!

Out of this city and into the flat agricultural land which in it's winter garb lacked much of interest all the towns the train passed through were a bit drab and run down, it's a bit like the fens here and probably this northern swathe of Italy was at some time marsh land, fed by the waters that are now concentrated together into the river Po (any excuse for a telly tubbies title!) over the Po and the land remains much the same until distant hills appear to the south, this range seems to extend down the Italy like it's backbone much the same as the Pennines do at home, tho here industrial towns still cling in the deep valleys coming from the hills, with presumably a history of mining and smelting, many tired old factories still exist here.

the train is threading through tunnels as it heads south, through one long tunnel the train catches me out, I'm not paying attention and I miss my connecting station in the center of Genova, I only realize when the train reverses direction, to late for me to jump off.... Getting off at the next station I have half an hour standing on a freezing cold platform with the distant hills showing snow! 

My train arrives and I get to Genova Brignole station which once again has beautiful architecture, heading into town through the high, street houses that crowd either side I'm getting very intermittent GPS signal and my route to the hostel goes way off a few times, before it dawns on me that the hostel is up since steps that look as though they belong to a fancy hotel!, which they might buy at the top Hostel shows complete with bar and restaurant, I can book in a few hours early luckily, so I dump my rucksack in this latest dorm, feeling pretty exhausted after a reasonably short train journey I Google for a reason for this seems I have travel fatigue! No surprise after over a month's travel.... I'm thinking I'll have an extended stay in Rome probably a good week, this should reset me system, but that's likely a good three- four days from now. 

Dragging my self from the soft mattress (much better than the hard one at Milan) I'm out in the cold and waking up again thankfully! 

A stop at yet another Carefour and provisions for tomorrow are procured.

My plan has been to have a walk to the coast this afternoon, my meandering takes me back to near the stazione before heading south, this is a nice area and I'm starting to warm towards Genova, wide streets take me through what I think are modern copies of traders houses and where the street widens I imagine the markets for foreign goods rather than the car parks and busy roads.... And would you believe it..... Another arc de triumph!!! 

Beyond a near naked statue of a man thankfully with his tackle concealed

is the sea!

i get a little arty with my photograph of a nearby fountain...

creating a partial eclipse! 

Pretty pleased with this wander back to grab dinner at the bar and after catching the blog up, bed.

Day33 'Meh lan' not so bad!

I can't say I'm Milan's biggest fan.... Nope I'm just not a fan, honestly it's just a bit grubby! 

But it does have some good points and today I found some! 

So yay? 

Yeah the metro isn't the most connected of underground systems with different lines not generally being linked and an ok knowledge of the streets above can be required to get your journey to work! 

But it works.... And it got me to where I wanted to go today and that's all I needed, this was the Mudec museum it's a little out of town so the metro was appreciated here, 

I liked the way the museum did it's pricing there were two modern art exhibitions that cost and that I had no interest in! And there was the permanent exhibition, this I was interested in ..... Not just because it was free! 

Ascending stairs from the entrance you encounter a rather pleasing atrium from which the three exhibitions spread, the atrium is high ceilinged with design to represent waves and flowing water, it's really rather nice!

with flowing video in each panel with subtle colours.... The image fails to convey the height of this, which does reach a good 10mtrs to the ceiling. 

The permanent exhibition portrays Italy's colonial past it's trade the rise and fall of colonialism in Africa and South America and Italy's close links and in part occasional occupation in the north by Spain! Milan itself having been under Spanish control.

Exhibits were rather special the intricately carved conch shells being particularly impressive! 

South American demons were rather fun

and a good collection of Spanish Dollar locally made in South America to be exported back to Spain to be recast..... A simple way to enable the transit of silver....

tho as the image shows the quality of silver varied immensely! 

Imperial efforts in Ethiopia really didn't go well with this image portraying the defeat of the Italians at the hands of Negus Menelik the second.....

enough to enjoy here but not too much to lose my interest. 

Completing the tour I left in search of the Naviglo Grande a canal system linking the surrounding towns.... Nice on a sunny day

the waters are shallow but very clean and teaming with fish and the occasional Gondola! 

from the canal I headed off to find the metro to my next stop, on route tho I found a red leaved oak native of south America and a few hundred years old.... Sadly in its supporting frame it just reminded me of king Kong in chains on a stage if you remember the movie! 

behind it you can see yet another arc de triumph! 

You can't have a city without one it seems!

Through a park and I find the metro Vetra which I take to Cairoli to see the Sforzesco castle rather impressive from the outside! 

internally it's lost much of the original structures with a few courts and surrounding almost moorish arched walkways, to the rear impressive long gardens with in the distance yet another arc de triumph! Lol 

back through the courts and I spot the coat of arms for Milan! 

Which explains the number of England flags I'd seen..... Yep even tho the red cross on white is identical to the St George flag this one is for St Ambrose 

Yet another dragon tho.....?

My next sight for the end of the day was the Bosco Verticale a tower block covered in trees and bushes, that in summer must be impressive, the choice of shrub in winter really loses its charm .... Luckily some of the few tower blocks here are really nicely designed and made the diversion worthwhile

only a short walk back from here to the hostel and this took me past a tiny stretch of abandoned canal now cut off from the network by a few miles the original system must been quite impressive during the industrial revolution!

now it's slowly rotting away and will no doubt fade from history under more concrete. 

Back at the hostel it's just me and another chap in the room, I had no idea he was English!!! And a fellow traveller just on his return trip from India after a month and half pursuing his interest in yoga, from having said nothing to each other we spent the evening discussing philosophies and life's intrigues! 

We all follow our own hippy trails and he's certainly done his properly! 

India will hopefully be reached at some point on my trip! 

This is Josh ..... Occasionally to be found driving a yellow and black tuktuk in Bristol! 😄

A great conversation to finish the day.