A trans friend drops by during the flower festival

 My friend Gina from England, who's been mentioned a number of times here over the years (here for instance), was on an Interrail trip through Europe. I thought Interrailing was something students did in the 1980s and had forgotten about the scheme but, no, it's fifty years old and still going. In fact, Gina had a 50th anniversary discount on her ticket. After various stops in unusual places like Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, her itinerary brought her to various towns along the riviera such as Genoa, Monaco and Nice. But I met her in Sanremo yesterday afternoon and we went on a tour of the town, which happened to be celebrating its annual flower festival. The climate is very mild so many of the cut flowers available in Europe over the winter come from there.

The narrow medieval streets and elegant 19th century squares are pleasant to stroll through, but this weekend the town fountains were dressed with flowers ...

... and some of the buildings that are not normally open were, such as this tiny church, which is one of the oldest in town:

There were some other unusual things such as this shipwreck with flowers illustrating one of the novels of Italo Calvino, who was brought up in Sanremo and the centenary of whose birth falls this year:

They laid on a string quartet in the square ...

... and other entertainments ranging from brass bands to a lineup of Fiat 500s. 

The clocks have just gone forward to summer time and the much lighter evening was very welcome after this past winter. 

We wandered around town and had dinner at La Siesta which specialises in local monkfish (fishing frog, they call it) and red prawns. The former is particularly good. Their fishing frog stuffed with crunchy veg is is one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten:

Anyway, it was really good to have a catch-up with Gina five years since I last saw her. We were both wearing what I might call andro-stealth style, which is women's clothes but not presenting female, if you see what I mean. So women's shoes and jeans and tops - all feminine, but not in a way that outs us. We feel happy in our female attire but nobody actually notices we're TGirls.

Good luck to Gina getting home to England with French strikes going on, though. There world is a bit in turmoil in one way and another so little events like these are very welcome right now.

Sue x