As we got installed on the ship and familiarized with our surrounding, had our first dinner and received the usual Captain's welcome address, we were told that the liner would be immobilized two extra days in Genoa and this might continue at each following port of call until the crew strike would be resolved, if it that would be the case at all.
We were initially scheduled to arrive in Melbourne on July 1st, but obviously that date would be different. Neither Jean-Pierre nor I seemed to care, beside there was no easy and affordable means of letting our peers know about this nasty development.
Instead, we spent the two remaining days exploring Genoa harbor, a really dirty and repulsive section of town, befriended local sex workers (yes, just friends, period) who guided through its seedy bars and bizarre nightclubs where I discovered, for the first time that romantic relationships where not always of the heterosexual kind. These gals said it all when they summarized their locale in exclaiming: "Che casino", which literally translates to "what a cat-house!"
At the same time trying to understand the intricacies of the huge ship we sleep in at night. During the day and while the strike was in progress, there was no food service on board, so each day, we got a few thousand Italian Lira to purchase food on our own.
On board, in the second-class section where we were, we began to meet a few young people from France and other European Countries, all bound to Australia, either to immigrate or return home if they already happened to live there.
But there were not just young folks, the vast majority were also Italian and Yugoslav families that boarded the ship in Genoa, not by choice, but because their only good economic option was to start a new life in that country that was still seeking and welcoming newcomers, even if they were torn apart in having to leave their homeland.
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