24th July 2013

Genoa 2013

Choosing a locum in Genoa in July during a heatwave in the UK might seem like poor planning. But when the offer came in the middle of a wet Cumbrian January, it seemed like an opportunity.

The Anglican Church in Genoa, The Chiesa Anglicana, is located on Piazza Marsala, a short walk from Piazza Ferrari the central square in Genoa, with its statue of Garibaldi and its many roads (Vias) radiating off away to the outskirts of the city and down past the Cathedral to Porto Antico.

Sunday services, even in July when the City is vacated by those fortunate enough to have a house in the cooler hills, are well attended with a rich mix of English ex Pat’s, American and European visitors together with Anglicans from Africa and India.

On my first two Sundays the organist, Flora, was in the UK visiting friends and family and so the service was accompanied to great effect by two violinists, Hanuka and Eleanor, from Japan and Germany and now resident in Genoa.

Since my last visit to Genoa a regular Wednesday lunchtime service has been introduced, this brings together a smaller group of regular attendees for worship and mid week fellowship. But the biggest change was in the huge improvements to the ordering of the interior by the congregation with the support of the relatively new friends group.

My first official engagement as the Locum Chaplain was to attend a reception given by the American Consulate in the grounds of the Palazzo Bianco in Via Garibaldi, to celebrate Independence Day and the close relationship between Italy and the USA. There was no ‘Tea’ on offer, (it wasn’t a Tea Party!) so with ‘reluctance’ I sipped my cold Prosecco and toasted the pilgrim fathers silently.

The month has been spent seeking shade from the heat, occasionally from the thunderstorms but even in the evening the temperature has been 27 degrees and at mid-day as high as 37.5.

Other snapshots of our visit were of Beat Box, a Beatles Tribute band playing live at a Beatles Convention in Porto Antico, all four ‘Beatles’ Giovanni, Paolo, Giorgio and well …. Ringo? In their Beatle Party Wigs, played their parts right down to the ‘Liverpudlian’ banter between songs.

Whoever said nostalgia is not what it used to be?.

And to end Gezmataz, Genoas own Jazz festival which was especially wonderful featuring as it did the UK’s Andy Sheppard who was born in Warminster and who a couple of years ago played a wonderful, benefit concert for Lanercost Priory in Cumbria.

The congregation in Genoa are hoping that he can be persuaded to do the same for them.