Typical street view
Genoa – capital of Liguria, situated on the cusp between Liguria levante (east) and Liguria ponente (west).
Città vecchia early in the morning
Viletta di Negro public park
One bright, fresh and sunny day we took the early morning train from our first abode, the agriturismo, to Genoa, also known as La Superba. It is indeed superb. Basically, it has a wealthy, elegant and urban part with grand palazzi, boulevards and piazze, and a poorer, labyrinthine, mystical and very dark part (città vecchia) that has a slight Arab touch to it. It is dark because the buildings are exceptionally high (re-stacked continuously since the 12th century) yet the roads (pedestrian alleyways, really) are extremely narrow. As we walked from the train station to the centre of town through the warren of lively streets in the città vecchia, we came across prostitutes at about 9 in the morning, thinking we were really deep into the old part of town now – but when we turned a corner and walked down a very short alleyway we were on Via Garibaldi, Genoa’s most elegant and important street lined on both sides with grand palazzi, one more incredible than the next. In the past these huge palazzi belonged to various ruling families. Via Garibaldi is widely regarded as equal in grandeur to the Canale Grande in Venice.
Headboard for a bed in an antique shop. Sure beats Ikea.
One of the palazzi on Via Garibaldi
The palazzi on Via Garibaldi are insanely grand and of exquisite elegance but their true glory can only really be found inside. We are not entirely sure if the Canale Grande is not actually in a league of its own, but never mind. Our day-long sojourn in Genoa left us liking this city very, very much. We found many hidden treasures, a number of excellent trattorie, a genuinely friendly vibe and some much-needed metropolitan flair for our now rural selves.
Gran bar Klainguti dal 1828 - our favourite
An imposing entrance
The only thing that is a real disappointment is the lack of integration with the port: it has been severed from the rest of the city by a raised motorway, and no efforts have apparently been made to integrate at least some parts of the port with the city. Instead, you get the usual army of Africans selling fake Montcler jackets and Gucci bags on a vast, soulless ‘promenade’ with zero facilities or amenities. It’s a mess. A bit less development and a bit more seediness and character would have been nice.
The port of Genoa
But, all in all, we liked Genoa a lot and we will come back for more. One day was not enough and we are definitely enamoured. We were not that impressed with the art on the walls in the palazzi that we visited, but what we really liked were the incidental details, particularly the resting chairs for visitors in the picture galleries and the parquet floor in the porcelain gallery of the Palazzo Bianco.
