The stairs from hell

It looks nice, but all I see here are more stupid stairs that Sarah has to climb...we go down the stairs and then down that ramp by the yellow house.

Please notice that this is not just an incline (its a very steep incline) and like most of the walking roads in Genoa its paved in cobble stone and uneven brick.

A typical Genovian vista...all of the roads look like this.

Cute little Italian lady putting us to shame.

There is only one word to descibe the streets in Genoa: INSANE, ridiculous, wish-you-were-dead-miserable! You can probably count on your hands (maybe just one hand) how many level streets there are in the city...we are always walking at an incline of some degree. And its absolutely amazing because there are tons of old people in the city who can definitely take on these monsters and I (almost) can't. And they never end, you get to what you think has to be the top and...oh, no you've actually just begun.

So even though I'm eating pasta and bread like its going out of style...I am walking at least 3 miles a day, up-hill both ways. Really though, because we work, eat, and sleep in the same building we absolutely have to get out of the villa or we'll go crazy...plus a lot of our classes involve walking tours. To get to the center of the town, because that's where all the stores are, you have to go down a mountain to the port. And honestly I don't know which is worse: going down, bracing yourself against the slope (and knowing you have to come up again) OR coming back up and realizing how embarrassingly out of shape you are. Stair-master's got nothin on this place...I'm going to have buns of steel before I leave here.