Genova is a port city in North Italy. The colorful buildings poster in Genova attracted me to visit the city. It houses the largest Aquarium in Italy. Aquatic life fascinates me, so I decided to spend a day close to nature admiring the fascinations of the marine world. Genova is two hours travel time from Turin by local Train. The ordinary train ticket is valid for 24 hours and the ticket has to be validated before boarding the train. The train journey has a nice view of many cities of Italy like Asti and Alessandria. Mountains, valley and tunnels crossed the way. It was a rainy day. As I reached Piazza Principe station (The railway station of Genova) it was heavy down pour. Thankfully I had the umbrella in hand. I did not have much time to waste as I had to return to Turin by night after visiting the aquarium and other places. I also had my return ticket in hand.
I expected the Genova aquarium to be just next to the railway station. But reaching there was a bit tricky. Especially as it was raining very heavily, my mobile screen was getting water droplets, I couldn’t look for directions. Finally giving up and securing the mobile in pocket I decided to ask way to the local people. That was the best decision. My shoes and socks were completely soaked in almost 10 cm rain water. Only at the junctions I would confirm with people which direction to walk. But still I perfectly managed to walk in the direction opposite to the aquarium as I reached the Port. Then realized I am walking into residential area. Thanks to the local resident who showed me way. They call Indians as “Indiana” and Italians also know Shahrukh Khan is what I learned. I turned around walked back to the aquarium counting the pillars of the over bridge beautifully painted with the aquatic species. The pillars were numbered counting backwards till it reaches zero at the entrance of the aquarium.
The aquarium has aquatic lives of all oceans of the world. They also have a biodiversity park and a marine museum in a ship. I visited the aquarium only, as that takes at least two hours to finish seeing. Still raining, I bought the ticket and safely entered into the aquarium. There were penguins in large pools so attractively dancing and walking. The dolphins were playing in another big pool. I reached the top of floor. The port view was superb. The colourful Genova city was visible in front of my eyes, but due to heavy down pour, the view was blurred. The Pesto is famous dish at Genova. I reached the “Gusto a Bordo” restaurant and enquired if they have Pesto. The chef specially prepared “Trofie Al Pesto” for me. Wow! The greeny green aromatic Pesto, it was simply delicious.
As I came out of the restaurant the rain stopped, and now I could have a very clear view of the city. It was beautiful and this is what I saw in the posters. Climate was beautiful and there was rainbow. Enjoyed taking some photographs from that location.
The aquarium has touch pool wherein we can touch the fishes. There were sharks in a pool. Also there was a pool with a lot of colorful fishes with colours of blue, red, yellow and orange. It was the most beautiful pool. They had so many varieties of jelly fishes. There were sea horses and octopus. But the pool with sharks is where I stood for a very long time observing their movements.
There were the mangroves set up at 26 degree. The Red sea, Aeolian Island and the Maluku islands aquatic lives were recreated here and maintained at different temperatures to suit the habitation.
The Sturgeons were present, which are the oldest living bony fishes. These are rare as very few fishes are alive in the world counting a maximum of 20,000.
Photo flash are not allowed in the aquarium. The pools are neat and very well maintained. The dolphins were playing with their toys which we get to see both from the bottom and top of the pool. As this was my first aquarium visit in lifetime l found it very divine and serene especially when I saw some children running along back and forth with the sharks as they swayed in the pool. One memorable trip accomplished on the whole.
Soul Travelogue 