canestrelli

This weekend we first had plans to go visit the Riekmann's at the beach in Saintes Marie de Mer along the French Riviera, but realized it was quite far and would be difficult to get there without a car.  So we decided to take a short train ride to one of the beaches along the Italian Riviera instead. We decided on Spotorno and Noli, but when we got to the station our train was canceled.  So we decided to take a train in the other direction to Santa Margherita and Rapallo.  But that train was canceled too.  We soon figured out that the trains were on sciopero (strike) and decided to just stay in Genova.  Saturday morning, after pancakes, we hiked up to Rigghi - the northernmost part of Genova. 

walking up the salita to Rigghi

first signs of fall

last of the summer blackberries in Rigghi

view of the forts in Rigghi

The plan was to go to at least one of the castles up there, but we walked up instead of taking the funicolare, so Holden was already tired when we got there and we didn't pack lunch so we were only able to hike a little and decided to save the castle for another day's adventure.  

Then on Sunday, after realizing we weren't going to take a train to the beach, we had a decision to make- take a train to Nervi and go kayaking or just stay in Genova and explore the city a little more. We ultimately decided to stay in Genova and headed for a cafe to recharge. This was a good idea because we later found out that none of the canoe/kayak stores will allow us to take Holden out with us.  Then we did a little shopping on Via XX Settembre and bought Holden some Italian jeans, not super tight and skinny as most are, but ones that actually fit his tiny legs since he lost weight from the stomach virus.  

And then we stumbled upon this fantastic place on Via Garibaldi called Creattivando.  It is a cooking class for adults and also for children and it just so happened that they were offering a children's cooking class shortly on making canestrelli, Italian sugar cookies.  Holden was ecstatic so we signed him up immediately.  He absolutely loves cooking and watches Cristina (the cook) every day in the kitchen and he and I bake treats for the students almost daily but this was a class just for him and he got to do it all by himself, even crack the eggs.  So after a short break for lunch at Eataly, we were off to the cooking class.  There was only one other boy and Holden was by far the youngest, but he didn't mind at all, in fact he got so much attention from all of the older girls that he was loving it!  So he made the pasta (dough), rolled it out, cut out shapes, put them on a baking pan, and then we came home with a nice little box of canestrelli.  And they were delicious! 

ingredients

mixing to make the dough

dough

kneading the dough

rolling the dough

more rolling

cutting the canestrelli

ready to bake

canestrelli to take home

taste test

second taste test

delicious!

Then Dave and Holden spent the remainder of the afternoon building a swing for the garden while fighting off all the mosquitoes ( I never could have imagined Italia would have so many mosqitoes!) Even though we never left the city, it was a good day.

trying out the new swing Holden and Dave built

playing in the garden

painting in the garden

Well...
I'm so slow in writing these posts that this was actually last weekend and on Sunday of this weekend, we headed back to Rigghi with a lunch packed and with a backpack for Holden in case his legs tired and actually did hike to Forte Diamante.  This is a beautiful fort/castle constructed in 1758 on top of the hill in Rigghi.  And I could be wrong, but I think Dave said it was about 700 meters above sea level.  It was a beautiful 5-mile hike in each direction and we couldn't have chosen a more beautiful day!  It offers wonderful views of the sea and the entire city of Genova.  In fact, we met some Americans (from Charlotte) in Rigghi who had just ridden the funicolare up for the scenic view.

on our way up to Forte Diamante

path marker, Holden was our navigator 

forte in the distance, sun in our eyes 

forte nearing on the horizon 

me with our picnic

finally there! 

inside the forte looking out

picnic

in the forte...

exploring Forte Diamante

walking back down