1936 On the Continent

bound to be annoyed.
    However, I will take the risk and for the sake of simplicity I will start with Northern Italy, on the assumption that you travel to Italy via Paris and Marseilles, by the direct Paris-Lyons-Mediterrané train, entering the country at Ventimiglia. If you are already tired out by the journey you can stop for a day or two’s rest at Bordighera, which lies in the centre of one of the most pleasant sections of the seaboard, the Riviera di Ponente. Among the luxury hotels of Bordighera I recommend the Capo Ampeglio, where a good international cuisine is provided, though there is a choice of thirty other hotels and about a dozen boarding-houses. But if Bordighera does not suit you there is another health resort a few miles away—Ospedaletti, which is world famous for its flower fairs.
Genoa
    Along the sea coast the first important city where the tourist will find it worth while to spend a few days is Genoa. Genoa has more than six hundred thousand inhabitants and is to-day the most important centre of Italian shipping. Those who enjoy the cosmopolitan society of sea captains and merchants will meet them at the big luxury hotels, while the humbler representatives of the sea will be found in a less opulent quarter behind the port. The best of the luxury hotels are: Grand Hotel Miramare et de la Savoy, the Savoy, the Bristol Majestic,and the Colombia. Those who have little time to spare can see Genoa in a single day, and tourists making for the south via Genoa are advised to devote at least twenty-four hours to this beautiful city. The port may best be seen from a boat, which is easily obtained, for the boatmen are always waiting for passengers near the mole, and the fare is only 8 lire for one person or 12 lire for two.
    The city itself, the Royal Palace and Pallavicini, Balbi Seneraga and Doria Pamphily palaces, as well as the other sights, can be “done” in the greatest comfort by horse cab. These are not particularly cheap, but after all one has to pay for comfort.
The Albergo Diurno
    If you arrive in Genoa in the morning, and are not too tired to proceed immediately to see the city, you may leave your luggage at the railway cloak room. But perhaps you would like to have a hot bath? Or perhaps you are in need of a shave, and being desirous of impressing the feminine half of Genoa you are also reluctant to appear in the street in an unpressed suit? The answer is: Go to the
Albergo Diurno
, or day hotel, which you will find not only in Genoa but also in all other Italian towns, and where you will find a bath, a hairdresser, a tailor to press your clothes, a shoe-shine to clean your shoes—in a word, everything you may require in the circumstances. You may even lie down for a brief rest at the
Albergo Diurno
which, of course, caters for both men and women. Any railway porter at the station will gladly direct you to this excellent establishment if you say to him: “Dovee’ l’Albergo Diurno?” In Genoa it is near the Carlo Felice Theatre, in the De Ferrari Square.
    Having viewed the palaces of the great bankers and merchant princes of Genua, and having, presumably, satisfied your thirst for artistic enjoyment, you will no doubt be ready to visit a restaurant and attend to the needs of the “inner man.”
    If you like exotic restaurants go to the Ciccia or the San Pietro all’ Focet in the seamen’s quarter, where you will be served with the best Genovan specialities, including
minestrone al pesto
, of which the distinguished Italian writerMorelli once said that Columbus in the most critical moments of his life used to think of this soup and was immediately comforted. If, however, you prefer a better class restaurant you could do worse than visit the Gambrinus on the Via S. Sebastiano. There are countless cafés where you can consume your black coffee after lunch or dinner.
    Before you leave Genoa try to recollect that Columbus was born here, that Battista Perasso, a young hero of the War of Liberation, whose pet name—Balilla—designates the Italian youth movement, was also cradled in this city, and that Garibaldi set out from Genoa on his campaign for the unification of Italy.
    Please do not condemn me for compressing all this momentous information into a single paragraph. Even the smallest Italian township offers sufficient material for a whole volume (which have actually been written about some), but, on the one hand, the publisher of the present work has issued a strict ukase forbidding