A thriving seafront metropolis on the glittering Italian Riviera, Genoa and its historic city centre represent Old Europe with a new twist of chic shopping, avant-garde galleries, trendy bistros and upscale enotecas. Genoan culture and history still dig deep in this Ligurian capital city, from the Enlightenment-era architecture of the Palazzi dei Rolli mansions to the Gothic-Romanesque Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, built in 1098. Rich terracotta tiles top pastel-washed cottages, villas and trattorias, creating a painter’s dreamscape of cosmopolitan Italy.
Visitors to Genoa’s historic city centre, known as Centro Storico, follow a maze of twisted “caruggi” alleyways to multiple small squares where wealthy Genoan merchant mansions now hold priceless art collections in small “house museums”, and the 16th century Palazzo Spinola displays a magnificent collection of Italian and Flemish Renaissance paintings. Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, a striking white marble and black granite structure from the 1100s, harbours an unexploded British artillery shell fired at the Cathedral on 9 February 1941. The old city centre also includes Porto Antico, the original city harbour, now complemented by a string of pubs, seafood trattorias, a maritime museum and one of Italy’s most cherished aquariums.
Public transportation in Genoa is comprehensive and readily available, including the “Volabus” shuttle from Genoa airport, which also provides a set amount of travel time on the AMT network of buses, metro trains, public elevators, cable cars and a short underground system. Local buses and taxis transfer tourists from main stations to various points with the historic city centre. On foot, tourists can reach the city centre from the port docks in 20 minutes or less.
According to Roman legend, the city’s name comes from the Roman god Janus, which translates as “Genoa” in Italian. He is considered the god of protection, guarding the gates and passageways of a city, and the entrance to a person’s private home. Homage to the Roman god is evident in the bas-relief doorway carvings of Catholic saints still gracing historic homes in the city centre.