Eating in Genoa doesn't just mean focaccia and pesto; you'll also enjoy a cuisine based primarily on legumes, fish, and wild herbs.
Discover Genoa's specialties, from pesto to focaccia, including traditional dishes and desserts. This guide introduces you to Genoa's delicacies and the city's flavors.
Close to one of the core areas of the modern city centre, near Piazza Dante, is a medieval island of particular charm. Walking up the short, brick-paved slope of the historic vico dritto di Ponticello means crossing a space dense with monuments, a sort of short walk through the history of Genoa.
Certainly, the urban redevelopment works that took place in the area during the first decades of the last century have distorted its appearance, but we are left with a kind of evocative ‘condensation’. Between the Middle Ages and the discovery of the Americas, one can almost touch one of the most fertile and fascinating periods of the city's history and art.
Cerca de una de las zonas neurálgicas del centro moderno de la ciudad, cerca de la Piazza Dante, se encuentra una isla medieval de particular encanto. Subir la corta cuesta, pavimentada con ladrillos, del histórico vico dritto di Ponticello significa atravesar un espacio denso de monumentos, una especie de breve paseo por la historia de Génova.
Ciertamente, las obras de reurbanización que tuvieron lugar en la zona durante las primeras décadas del siglo pasado han distorsionado su aspecto, pero nos queda una especie de «condensación» evocadora. Entre la Edad Media y el descubrimiento de América, casi se puede tocar uno de los periodos más fértiles y fascinantes de la historia y el arte de la ciudad.
Spianata Castelletto is the charming terrace overlooking the historic center, offering a spectacular view of the city and the port. From here, you can admire the roofs of the old slate houses, a typical material of this area, medieval towers, and Baroque domes.
In the distance, the sea is animated by modern boats. As a backdrop, the city's heights are dotted with parks, villas, sanctuaries, and crowned by fortresses. It's thrilling to take the Art Nouveau elevator up there.
Casteletto is a residential neighborhood located on the hills overlooking the historic center of Genoa, between the districts of Prè, Maddalena, Portoria, and San Vincenzo to the south, Oregina to the west, and three districts of the Val Bisagno (San Fruttuoso, Marassi, and Staglieno) to the east.
Explanada de Castelletto.
The intensive settlement of the neighborhood was progressively produced starting from the 19th century, when with the urban revolution begun by Carlo Barabino's project the hill was identified as the ideal area for the burgué residential neighborhood, not far from the center and with an enviable panoramic opening over the inhabited center.
Look for the streets of ancient Genoa sung by De Andrè, described by Dickens, Paul Valery and other writers who across the centuries have attempted to capture the soul of the city. Please take a look at the highlights of the Palacios Rolli recognized by UNESCO as a Human Heritage Site. Finally, from Piazza Portello, you take the Castelletto elevator, and from there you connect to paradise, in the words of Giorgio Caproni.
Sales of the elevator and Genoa appear before your eyes, so complicated on the maze of narrow and narrow streets, never banal: on the horizon the port with its large boats and its boats, ideal bottom line for the tejados of the pizarra of the ancient city, like «a stormy petrified sea», like wrote another great Ligurian poet of the twentieth century, Camillo Sbarbaro.
The Esplanade, as the Genoese called it, is the most romantic scenario for young and romantic lovers: including the Genoese couples, they go there to exchange lovers passionate about the light of the candle, listen to romantic songs, hug and dream of strangers contemplating the blue of the sea.
From Spianata Castelletto, the Genoa of the streets, a mysterious and inextricable city appears more comprehensible and its beauty is more evident. The view extends from the East to the West and in some cases you can touch the Lantern, symbol of the city, while the villas of Albaro are lit up in pink at the end. There in the city is Boccadasse, an ancient village that cost just in the city. Just look at it and seem to invite us to a break from the frenzy and a visit to their romantic restaurants on the famous Playa de Guijarros.
The Royal Palace, or Palazzo Stefano Balbi, is one of the most important historic buildings in Genoa, included among the 42 Palazzi dei Rolli selected and declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on July 13, 2006.[2] It is a museum complex consisting of the historic residence, the adjoining garden and the picture gallery, the gallery of the Royal Palace, which constitutes one of the main art collections of the city.
It is a museum complex consisting of the historic residence, the adjoining garden and the picture gallery, the gallery of the Royal Palace that constitutes one of the main art collections of the city.
Located in via Balbi 10, a short distance from the university and the Genoa Piazza Principe railway station, it is part of an important 17th and 18th century architectural complex in the Genoese Baroque style, of which the most representative interiors, from frescoes to stuccoes, from paintings to furniture, have been preserved intact.
The sumptuous palace is part of an important architectural complex of the 17th-17th century in Genoese Baroque style - it is one of the Rolli -, patrician residence of noble families (Balbi, Durazzo, Savoia), is today the Royal Palace Museum and preserves intact the furnishings, works of art and objects of use (17th-19th centuries).
Its rooms also house a rich art gallery that includes works by many Italian and foreign artists (including Van Dyck, Tintoretto, Strozzi) and the Genoese school. The most famous room of the palace, which has come down to us intact in the decoration commissioned by Gerolamo II Durazzo, and created by the most famous painter of the eighteenth century in Genoa, Domenico Parodi, is the famous Gallery of Mirrors.
The decoration, which includes and unites painting, sculpture and architecture, rivaling the famous galleries of the Palazzo Colonna and Palazzo Doria-Pamphili in Rome, and the Galerie des Glaces in Versailles, creates a grand rhetorical celebration of power and wealth. The exhibition includes the display of the Durazzo collection of classical sculptures, mostly original Roman sculptures with missing parts added in the Baroque period, as well as works by Domenico's father, Filippo Parodi.
The four white marble statues, of Bernini origin, have as their subject some of Ovid's metamorphoses: Adonis, Clytia, Venus, Hyacinth. In the background, the marble group with the Rape of Proserpina by the late Baroque sculptor Francesco Maria Schiaffino reinterprets the work of Gianlorenzo Bernini preserved in the Borghese Gallery with the accentuated dynamism typical of Rococo culture.
With over two hundred paintings on display on the two main floors, there are works by the greatest Genoese artists of the seventeenth century such as Bernardo Strozzi, Grechetto, Giovanni Battista Gaulli known as Baciccio, Domenico Fiasella along with masterpieces by Bassano, Tintoretto, Luca Giordano, Antoon van Dyck, Simon Vouet and Guercino.
The pictorial decoration, made directly by Domenico, is inspired by classical antiquity and includes scenes with Apollo and Marsias and with Bacchus and maenads in the headdresses, the Toucher of Venus on the vault and figures with personifications of virtues and ancient emperors.
All the scenes are connected by a single moralizing theme, probably dictated by the Jesuits, whose college, located in front of the palace, was supported by the Durazzo family. The ancient deities in the center of the vault, Venus, Bacchus and Apollo with Marsias, represent the vices that led to the ruin of the great empires of antiquity, represented by the four emperors depicted in the oval medallions, Sardanapalus, Darius, Ptolemy and Romulus Augustulus, while the female figures seated on the cornice represent the allegories of the theological and cardinal virtues that guide the Durazzo family, whose coat of arms stands out in the center of the gallery.
The didactic activities at Palazzo Reale - guided tours and workshops - are designed to stimulate the spirit of observation and deduction in the youngest visitors, allowing them to discover new ways of interpreting our historical and artistic heritage.
Children are offered the opportunity to be protagonists and learn about heritage through a direct and engaging approach.
For this reason, the Museum's Educational Service offers a wide range of activities aimed at the knowledge and deepening of historical and artistic topics related to the Royal Palace.
Art lovers should not miss the admirable works by Antoon Van Dyck Portrait of Caterina Balbi Durazzo, painted by Van Dyck at the age of 25, and Christ expiring.
THE ROYAL PALACE OF GENOA IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC ON THE FOLLOWING DAYS AND TIMES:
TUESDAY from 1.30 p.m. to 7 p.m. (last admission 6.30 p.m.).
WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY and SATURDAY from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (last admission 6:30 p.m.)
1st and 3rd SUNDAY of the month from 1.30 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. (last admission 6.30 p.m.), closed on other Sundays.
Free admission on the first Sunday of the month.
closed on Monday.
The city, emblem of the Mediterranean port and European maritime traffic until the twentieth century, has many things to show.
In this new installment we talk about Porto Antico, the ancient port (now moved to Voltri in the periphery) transformed in the tourist boom of cruise ships.
I continue with this sort of guided tour through the streets of Genoa, the city where I spent 20 years of my life, that is to say the end of my childhood and all my adolescence.
A city from which I am currently separated by more than 10,000 kms but which I will always keep in my heart.
In previous posts I told you about the Lanterna, the lighthouse, symbol of the city, about Boccadasse, the district on the sea with its multicoloured houses, about the Galata naval museum, the largest in the world, in a city whose origins were always seafaring, about the monumental Cathedral of San Lorenzo, located in the very heart of the city, nestled in the very heart of the historic centre, the largest and most densely populated in Europe, and the Doge's Palace, emblem of Genoese power at a time when a large part of Liguria was independent of the central power, forming an autonomously administered Republic.
Today I am going to share my impressions of Via Garibaldi and one of its emblematic buildings: the Rolli palace.
Via Garibaldi and the Palazzi dei Rolli / Via Garibaldi and the Palazzi dei Rolli.
Genoa has a lot to offer: sea, mild climate, art and culture. A tour of the beauties to visit to discover it thoroughly and love it.
Genoa has a lot, if not everything. The sea, first of all. But also a strong identity, an urban development of its own, many faces and many worlds. Defined as “the superb” by Petrarch, who saw it as the lady of the sea leaning towards the waters, Zena (another nickname) has to offer a mild climate all year round, perfect for visiting and enjoying its architectural and artistic beauties. Between a focaccia dipped in cappuccino for breakfast and a plate of trofie with pesto, the 10 essential stops to get to know it in depth and fall in love with it.
The Doge's Palace is one of the most symbolic historical sites in the city of Genoa: residence of the Doge since 1339, today it is the main center of cultural production in the city. The most beautiful and important art exhibitions are exhibited here and festivals and festivals are held throughout the year. The construction of the Palace began in 1298, at a fortunate moment in the history of the Republic, the moment when Genoa was consolidating as an economic power in the Mediterranean Sea, displacing the other so-called maritime republics.
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I continue to show you some things about Genoa, the Ligurian capital that marked my life for 20 years of living there before returning to my country of origin.
Today I am going to refer to the Cathedral of San Lorenzo which, among its somewhat peculiar characteristics, preserves an intact bomb inside, which fell during a bombing in World War II and remained unexploded. A testimony to the madness of humanity and some rulers blinded by power and pride.
When we talk about the hand of God we are perhaps referring to events like this.
The majestic Cathedral of San Lorenzo is the historical, artistic and religious heart of the city of Genoa and is therefore one of the most beloved symbols of the Superba.
The façade features splendid Gothic portals, unique in Italy, for which French craftsmen were called in the third decade of the 13th century.
During the Second World War, Genoa suffered many bombings and in 1941, during a bombardment by the English fleet, a shell pierced the roof of the Cathedral but miraculously remained unexploded.
It is impossible not to be enchanted by the majesty of its black and white striped façade, the bell tower that dominates the historic centre, the meticulous details that contribute to making the building a true architectural jewel. It is the cathedral of San Lorenzo, the most important church in Genoa.
Built around 1098 on a previous basilica from the 5th-6th century and enlarged over the centuries with solemn and precious forms, the cathedral dedicated to San Lorenzo Martyr houses the ashes of the city's patron saint, San Giovanni Battista, who arrived in Genoa at the end of the First Crusade.
The charm of this city nestled between the mountains and the sea, fragmented between past and present, a crossroads of different peoples and cultures (it is no coincidence that the medieval name of Genoa is Janua, "door" in Latin), has attracted the attention of writers, poets and singer-songwriters, who in their verses have spoken of its beauty, its contrasts, its hidden soul.
First of all Fabrizio de André, who is today celebrated with a small but wonderful museum at Via del Campo 29.
Although Genoa is known above all for its Aquarium, the ancient maritime republic keeps within its walls wonderful testimonies of its glorious past, but also bold and modern works that have made it a kind of capital of modern Italian architecture.
Strolling through the city, you can admire noble palaces and ancient churches, lose yourself in the labyrinth of characteristic alleys (carroggi) that make up the core of the old city, visit interesting museums, and be amazed by the symbols of the city. The new Genoa, which looks to the future but is a magnificent guardian of a past that is always present.
