Discover Genoa, Italy … The Ligurian capital – “Genova” in Italian – is the birthplace of one of the world’s greatest explorers, yet, ironically, remains relatively unknown.

 

Discover Genoa: The Birthplace of Christopher Columbus

The birthplace of Christopher Columbus – a major port city afloat with architectural riches and dolce vita charm – is largely overlooked. And that’s even by fellow Italians, according to local Genoese tour guide Barbara Cudia.

That was the case before the bridge tragedy hit it in August 2018 and put a further dent in its image. 

“We were breathless when we were on the bridge,” Cudia admits. “Everything seemed to shake … we felt unsafe.” 

On the eve of my visit, I see a BBC documentary about a young man who lost three family members, including his mother and 5-year-old brother, in the accident. 

Cudia says the city still lives in the shadow of that motorway disaster, which left 43 dead.

“We had a lot of troubles with the bridge collapse, which has now been rebuilt. It blocked the arrival of all cargo and cut off the working port from the city.” 

If anything, the Morandi bridge put Genoa into the limelight. But for all the wrong reasons. An inquiry into the disaster pointed to the dire state of its crumbling infrastructure. And for Cudia, there’s an analogy there.    

“The population is old, the region is old, there are no more industries, no more job opportunities”.

Genoa La Superba

The 6th city of Italy, she says, with a population of 585,000, “is not a touristic town”. But it should be.

Just ask 14th-century poet Petrarch. He dubbed it “La Superba” (the proud one) and “Signora del Mare” – lady of the sea.  

“It’s got lots of potential,” says Cudia, owner of HELLO GENOA tours. But first, it’s got to ditch the industrial past.

“Some people think we must again be an industrial city, but that’s not moving with the times. We need change and new investments.”

Despite a small Silicon Valley effect – Genoa’s Institute of Technology attracts talent from all over the world – the city remains too conservative for its own good, Cudia says.

Genoa nets about two million of the over 60 million foreign tourists to Italy each year. A figure that has been steadily on the rise since it was the European Capital of Culture in 2004. 

Italy’s Answer to Lisbon

Could Genoa be unwittingly keeping tourists at arm’s length?

Our guide describes the Genoese as a little “asciutto” – literally dry – standoffish. 

“Finally, with the epidemic, it gave them an excuse not to have to touch and hug people as other Italians do!” she laughs.

The city is similar. Though once you get past the austere exterior, it’s a tight-knit village at heart. An endearing tangle of sinewy streets, elegant shopping arcades, Romanesque churches and antiquated shopfronts.

Old Town: Portside Hills and Pesto Genovese 

Cudia talks of the “città verticale” – uphill city. 

“Tortuous winding narrow streets, old mule paths that climb along the ridge of hills, hilly neighborhoods, obligatory stairs and climbs.”

All this we become intimately acquainted with on a mission to find the best pasta artigianale in town. 

Genoa is home to Pesto Genovese as well as Columbus. The Pastificio Artigianale di Canneto, a tiny nook in the old city walls, is doing a roaring trade. Armed with our spinach and ricotta-filled ravioli di magro to eat at our hotel, we head back to the top of the centro storico. It was just an easy hop, skip and jump – about a ten-minute walk down. But a small slip in the wrong direction leads us astray.

Old Genoa is a maze of twisting cobblestoned carruggi and soaring stairways – salita – ready to trap the unwary. It’s easy to get thrown off course. The seemingly never-ending Salita Santa Anna cuts through old stone houses. We continue to climb – at least 300 steps – before coming all the way back down the other side of the hill to the NH Genova Central.

In our room, it’s paradise found, not lost, in the pasta fresca.

Coastal Promenades and Seaside Villages

The next day, we discover the old fishing villages unfurling to the east on the Riviera di Levante. The Ligurian capital stretches out over a Los Angeles-like 40 kilometres around the Gulf of Genoa.

Our first stop is Nervi – a bolthole of the European aristocracy in the late 19th century. Pastel colored Liberty-style houses (Italy’s Art Nouveau) hug the waterfront. From here, the Passeggiata Anita Garibaldi sweeps in spectacular seaside views and swimming nooks. The pathway leads to lush gardens encompassing three handsome villa-museums with Belle Époque facades. 

Next stop is Corso Italia, a 20-minute train ride back towards Genoa. Bars and restaurants dot the four-kilometre-long walkway, winding up at Boccadasse. Here, locals gather on the pebbled beach amid dinghies, Gothic churches, trattoria and gelateria.  

Ernest Hemingway in Genoa 

Above the village, the Bar Hemingway recalls the writer’s three weeks in the city in 1922. 

“I worked very hard at Genoa and wrote some very good stuff,” he chuffed. 

Covering the post-War Genoa Conference for the Toronto Star at the age of 22, his articles dissected everything from the sociology of Genoa’s slums to the clash between Italian Communists and Fascists. All that while making friends over Martinis.    

Port Redesign by Genoa’s Starchitect Renzo Piano

Genoa has one of the largest medieval centres in Europe. It’s also the most densely populated, according to Visit Genoa. 

From an independent Republic to the Ligurian Republic under Napoleon, Genoa became part of the House of Savoy dynasty in the early 19th century. The Casa di Savoia showered it with affluence – and modernised the port. Then, centuries after Columbus, another Genoa native stepped in to transform the harbour. Architect Renzo Piano – born here in 1937 – has navigated a gradual makeover of his hometown.

Driven by a desire to “rescue the historic city from decay”, he calls the regeneration work his “Genovese fresco”. 

Today, the port is a vibey, attraction-filled public space facing the sea. In 1992, for the 500-year celebrations of Columbus’s landfall in America, he designed waterfront promenades, warehouse shops and restaurants, an aquarium, a cinema and a conference centre. Then, in 2001, he created the Biosphere, a floating glass and steel bubble on the water containing a tropical forest with 150 plant and animal species. 

Piano came to the rescue after the Morandi viaduct collapse, too. His replacement design – the 1,100-metre-long Ponte San Giorgio viaduct – opened in August 2020.   

Merchants and Medieval Travellers Checks

Leaving these modern attractions, we arrive in the historical heart of the Porto Antico, Piazza Banchi. A bustling medieval exchange place for Genoa’s merchants, here in 1128, Cudia maintains, the first traveller’s check was born.

In 1855, the elaborate bas-relief carved Loggia dei Mercanti became the seat of Italy’s first Stock Exchange. 

Botteghe Storiche: Old Stores – Selling Gelato, Shoes and Chocolate

 

Near here, we duck into one of Genoa’s characteristic old-world shops, the Antica Ciccolateria Romeo Viagnotti.  The wooden shelf, glass cabinet store has been trading since 1866. The factory still uses the original antique machines and moulds. 

It’s one of about 70 Botteghe Storiche – old stores – from pharmacies, pasty shops and artisan shoe stores to chickpea and candied fruit makers.

“The botteghe carries the sense of production, a workshop and not just a shop,” says Cudia.

Another, is the 1876 Mangini Caffè Confetteria e Pasticceria, which boasts of serving Austrian Empress Sissi in 1893 as she travelled by coach from Rome back to Vienna

Art-filled UNESCO Palazzo 

The Via Garibaldi is suitably regal. The “Strada Nuova” (the street’s original name) sweeps in a swathe of lavish World Heritage-listed Renaissance palaces built by noble patrician families. Among them is the Versailles-like gilded chamber of commerce, Palazzo Tobia Pallavicino.

Once sumptuous public lodgings for dignitaries, today the 42 nymphaeum and fountain-decked Palazzi des Rolli house several art museums. High among them, the Palazzo Bianco with its Rubens and Caravaggios hung between its frescoed 16th-century ceilings and statue-lined loggia galleries. 

Vintage Funiculars and Urban Elevators

As it turns out, we were probably halfway up to Castelletto by foot on our first fateful evening. 

Instead, we could have taken a funicular, or even an antiquated elevator, up for a fun ride. And panoramic views of the port and city. A combination of both whips us up to the Belvedere Montaldo, at 57 meters (187 ft) altitude. The ornate and splendid 1909 Ascensore di Castelletto Levante has wooden wall panels and Liberty stained glass. 

Several old funicular lines, rack railways and elevators tackle Genoa’s mountain goat terrain. Our second encounter with Salita Santa Anna is far more felice … At the little dining den, Le Rune, whose garden terrazza backs onto the funicular track. 

Genoa’s rustic flavours dwell in a simple plate of squiggly trofie di patate al pesto con fagiolini. Liguria’s answer to gnocchi was once a poor peasant dish. 

Genoa is something of a relic, but there’s magic in that.  

Yet ironically, the home of arguably the world’s most famous explorer still awaits discovery.