My grandparents on my mother's side immigrated from a small town in Italy. I never knew my grandparents but I always wanted to visit the country where they came from. When we were deciding on which Mediterranean cruise to take, my only requirement was that we pick the one with the most ports in Italy.
Our first stop on the cruise was Portofino, a beautiful fishing village in Northern Italy and we elected to take a tour of Genoa from there. The weather was quite awful with rain off and on all day. The tour took us throughout the city and one of the stops was outside the Palazzo Rosso, a historical palace that is now an art gallery. The location looked over this view of the rooftops of the city. Even through the raindrops, the architecture shines through.