My first dinner out by myself was the highlight of the trip so far. Sure, I can’t afford to blow 40€ on food every day (much less just on dinner) for the rest of the trip, but since I’ve been feeling down (and since I skipped lunch) I went ahead and threw down for a full-on three course extravaganza. Plus, I have now ascertained that there is at least one ATM in the city of Genoa that will take my debit card. There was nothing with pesto on the menu, but there was seafood so I had a combination seafood plate to start, with mussels, octopus, toasted bread, and two kinds of what looked like thinly sliced ham. The wine I chose was called 'Gavi di Gavi.' It was white, and it tasted like rotten grapes (ha ha!). I wasn't actually sure what kind of wine it was - I picked it because it claimed to be Ghibelline, for while I respect His Holiness the Pope, as many of you may be aware I have always harbored a deep-seated pro-imperial bias. Wouldn't you rather be a Conrad or a Manfred than a Pius or a Sylvester?

Second, I had some fish with pasta. I ought to have written down the name of the fish (with what? I had no pen…) for it was not one I had heard of before, so unfortunately all I can tell you is it was fish bits and pasta on a plate with a bit of clear-ish sauce. I can also tell you it was delicious – despite having eaten a whole tray of bread (other tables with 6+ people got the same tray I did by myself) and a surprisingly large appetizer (two other people could likely have shared with me) I ate the whole plate in record time. That’s what you get, I guess, when your lunch consists of a 30 Euro-cent apple bought at around 3:45 PM.

Third, I had a tuna steak with what I took to be a DIY salad on the plate. There were (besides the fish) quartered tomatoes, lettuce, balsamic vinegar, lettuce of two kinds, a pile of what might have been anchovy bits (small, grey vaguely fishy cubes) and a dollop of mild green sauce. Frankly, I’m having a hard time describing it accurately. Who would have thought that paying attention to Top Chef might actually have been good for something? It’s probably better that I not remember it too clearly anyway, since I’m going to adopt a more monk-like dining sensibility, probably somewhere between the followers of Benedict and Francis.