Savona

We left Genova and drove west along the shore on the autostrada about 30 miles to Savona.  We only went through about 15 tunnels to get there.  We then drove along the shoreline.  It was rather cold and there was an occasional drizzle.  There was an enormous Costa Cruise ship in the harbor. This is a very nice town.  We were meeting the sister missionaries at the church.  TomTom took us right there.  We found a parking place around the corner and walked to the church building.  It was on the second floor of a nice city center building.  We found the sisters there, delivered the phone, and had a nice visit.  The church was the whole floor of that building, but the chapel was smaller than our living room in Silver Bay.  On the floor there was a kitchen, nursery, primary, young men, young women, Relief Society and Priesthood rooms.  We gave the Sisters a ride back to their apartment and then drove back to the parking area we were before so that we could continue to use our parking slip we had purchased.

 We then began to wander through town to find a place to eat.  Here are some of the streets of Savona. A very nice clean mix of old and new.

 A beautiful church building.

We finally found a restaurant.  I had the Ligurian standard - Pesto Pasta with beans and potatoes mixed in.  It was great!  We then decided to walk back to the car a different way.  Lots of neat doors (you will see them at the end of this post).  The city was very clean, almost no graffitti.  This was a place where I would like to live.  I thought I knew were we were going but then we saw this.

 Some how we  had wandered all the way to the cruise ship.

 I don't know how old that tower is, but it fits right in here in Savona.

 We were now on the coast highway and we walked back to the car the way we had driven to the church.  Here is an interesting blend of old and new towers, bright colors and earth tone buildings.

 Across the highway was a giant castle and old enormous military fort. In the foreground were these statues.

 As tired as we were, we had to walk up the ramp and check out the castle / fort.

 The ramp went through a dark tunnel

 Then up on top we found a kids Playground?  Yes that was a strange find.

 Around the corner from the playground were these ruins from the original castle.

 This is view looking west along the shore line

 And a view of looking east back towards the cruise ship.  The castle once had a large church,  and a Piazza. A very nice restaurant was hosting a wedding.

 While wandering around the fort I looked down at the walk way we came up on and saw the guys of the wedding party decorating the honeymoon car.

As we walked back down the ramp they were still at it.  They were having a great time!

 I know you would have been impressed by these doors.

Check out the detail on this door.  This is a real work of art!

  Would you like to look at this guy each time you came in the front door?

 Hear is another new Italian door.  Very nice.

 This one was next to the one before.  Similar but still different.

 Here is an older one.

 I think the carving on these doors is a dragon

 How about these outer doors that are open and then the inner doors that are closed.

Thisis the knocker on the doors that were open.