Thursday, June 4 – Genova

This morning we drove out to west Genova and picked up our host, Paula, the secretary of two of the Genova clubs for 25 years. The bus worked its way up a hill to iit, a neuroscience and robotics research laboratory. It was incredibly interesting, although technical at times. We saw robots and nanometer-level images of neurons and synapses.

iit ad poster. All their work is available to anyone - free! (hence us being able to take photos the entire tour)

A robot!

Making an arm.

The GSE team posing with a robot.

On the drive back to the city we wound through industrial areas and by the Genova Ikea store. Lunch turned out to be an official Rotary meeting (we were shocked as they had all been in the evening so far!). We were just guests, not presenters. It was much more like clubs in the USA, kept to a tight schedule as everyone had to return to work. The building it was in was beautiful! The most amazing spiral staircase!

With our lunchtime host.

The grand spiral staircase.

The afternoon was at the Genova aquarium. Very nice! There was a 3D shark movie and you could pet the stingrays (although their stumpy tails were sad, chopped off so they couldn’t kill us).

Jim gets devoured by a pre-historic fish.

Seals at the Genova Aquarium.

Stephanie and Kelli with the stingrays.

Kelli and I then went next door to a pirate ship (built and used in Roman Polanski’s “Pirates”).

Me coming above deck on the pirate ship.

Kelli by the pirate's anchor.

We grabbed gelati and ran into Gianni before the scheduled return to the bus. Then, as we were walking back, a formation of jets zoomed through the sky. We watched for a while, then got in the bus and watched some more during the slow (rush hour + jets!) drive back to the hotel. The jets were rehearsing for a show the next day. They are called the ‘three colors’ (of the Italian flag) and are the primo military trick flyers in Italy.

Jet streams during a practice run.

Dinner was a club meeting in the hotel we were in the previous evening. It was a smaller meeting. They explained GSE to the club members who might not be fully familiar with it. Then back to the sisters to bed.

On our way to a Rotary meeting in our home-away-from-home, Gianni's bus.

Ruth and our dinner hosts.

The team and our hosts.

Kelli and Jim show off their new Rotary hats.

Me, Jim, Ruth, and Stephanie waiting for Gianni to get the bus.