Road Trip from Bologna to Genoa

October 17, 2024 by Marivel

When I initially scheduled our trip to Italy early spring, we did some research around the prospect of hopping on the train and visiting another city. Our goal was to visit a coastal city, however, we couldn’t settle on where and how we would manage all the in between with a toddler. About one month prior to our departure we settled on Genoa where I was able to find a beautiful Airbnb in Recco with spectacular oceanside views. In retrospect, I sorta wish we would have spent more time in the Genoa area, however, everything was perfect because we missed all the rain they received while we were there.

Road Trip

In total traveling between Bologna and Genoa via car should have taken about 4-5 hours, however, we made a few stops and took breaks in an attempt to make travel comfortable and fun for baby girl too. In total we traveled about 7 hours, tired but ready to try some seafood! Despite our long travels, the coast and views were life-giving. We were in awe and so humbled to on such a beautiful vacation together as a family.

To be honest, we had virtually no itinerary for Genoa outside of visiting the Aquarium of Genoa for baby girl, seafood, and visit a beach. From Recco, we were about 2 hours away from Monterosso, one of the 5 historic cities of Cinque Terre. We took a short day trip to a local beach in Monterosso where we simply relaxed at the beach, people watched, and later grabbed some food a short walk away from the beach.

Genoa Highlights

Possibly the only thing we had scheduled for Genoa was to visit the Aquarium of Genoa with our baby girl. This was her second aquarium and a great way to keep her entertained as we all explored the area. Still tired from our long road trip, I was semi-obsessed with this fish as it totally described how I felt during parts of our road trip.

Outside of that we searched for pizza, seafood, and local coffee shops. As we drove from town to town, I couldn’t get enough of the oceanside views and driving through all the winding roads full of lush greenery with small towns carved near the sides of the road.