French author Honoré de Balzac once described flânerie, the French word for a detached and slowed form of urban exploration, as “the gastronomy of the eye.” It isn’t enough just to see the city, he proposes: one must ingest it, give themselves to it. The idea of flânerie may have been invented to describe an ebbing stroll through immortal Paris, but I believe that few places invite such a journey as do Genoa’s secretive caruggi, the Italian name for the alleyways that unfurl without end through the city’s brooding medieval centre. So, as much as flânerie is a gastronomy of the eye, an invitation to consume, you yourself become consumed wandering this network of alleyways as you are irretrievably swallowed into the very soul of the city; don’t simply get lost in the caruggi, lose yourself in them. And so I won’t write a guide on where to go and what to do once you enter this seemingly parallel underworld, I’ll let you discover the reliquary that awaits you all on your own.
Genoa is a city of paradoxes. The ancient capital of the Italian Riviera where rugged mountains elide with tranquil seas and a forgotten history explodes into dynamic modernity, the city has something mercurial to it, that ecstatic foreboding that overwhelms the system as you wander its storied streets, knowing that with each bend you will encounter something new, bizarre, and unexpected. The synaesthesia of dissolving oneself into its labyrinthine caruggi, the arteries of the old town through which pump murmuring voices, whispered scents of Liguria’s simple-yet-decadent delicacies, and wisps of sunlight that wax and wane on the elusive ocean breeze, is incomparable, too exquisite and almost too intimate to write. You have to experience it for yourself. And when you finally embark on pilgrimage to this neglected gem, I invite you to partake in these five experiences that make Genoa the city that the poet Petrarch could only describe as La Superba. Here's to our guide to Genoa.
Genoa cityscape at sunset
- © Hari Seldon / Shutterstock- La flânerie - lose yourself in the Old Town’s caruggi
- From a gastronomy of the eye to a gastronomy of the soul - the delicacies of Liguria
- A splash of modernity - Genoa’s ancient harbour, reborn
- And a splash of baroque opulence - Genoa’s aristocratic quarters
- Finally, rediscover the treasures of a forgotten art-world capital
La flânerie - lose yourself in the Old Town’s caruggi
From a gastronomy of the eye to a gastronomy of the soul - the delicacies of Liguria
If all this gastronomical talk, even if only in abstracted (and slightly pretentious) metaphor has awoken a burgeoning appetite in you, we’re thankfully in a city that is indelibly food-oriented while remaining uncompromisingly authentic, undiluted by the post-modern cuisine madness that plagues many of Europe’s top city destinations. In Liguria, food is as it should be, simple. Its most famous export is, of course, pesto: basil, pine nut, olive oil, and pecorino ground together into a decadent, aromatic sauce. For some of the best that the city has to offer, visit Trattoria Rosmarino Genova near the gorgeous Piazza De Ferrari or the Trattoria dell’Acciughetta near the city’s aquarium, a small and hearty restaurant that is habitually fully-booked, so reserve a spot early.
After this, be sure to visit some local favourites. For a dining experience like you’ve never had before, mount the city’s beloved funicular up to Righi and go to Ristorante Montallegro, a traditional pizzeria with a special twist. Here, pizza comes not in circles but in half-metre or metre sections that are shared along banquet-fit tables with friends and strangers alike. Meanwhile, the city’s best focaccia can be found at Cantiere Goloso which offers its guests fast service, unbeatable prices, and spectacular views. And although a hamburger likely isn’t the first food that springs to mind when you think ‘Italian cuisine’, I promise that a meal at Il Masetto, Genoa’s resident burger specialists, will not be regretted.
A splash of modernity - Genoa’s ancient harbour, reborn
At the height of the Republic of Genoa’s early modern power, the city’s harbour was a sort of sanctuary, the spring from which its wealth and influence poured. Although the harbour’s centrality to city life never truly receded, however, the collapse of the maritime republic and the onset of industrialisation transformed the old harbour into a less-than-desirable locale, a seedy underbelly of the city marred by new quasi-brutalist developments and a tangible mourning for the aesthetic grandeur it had lost to the march of time.
But, when the city was anointed European Capital of Culture in 2004, something changed. Namely, funding. Hundreds of millions of euros were sunk into both a revival and a reinvention of the harbour under the purview of Renzo Guizo, the revered Genoese son famous as the architect of Paris’ Centre Pompidou amongst other projects. Putrefied remnants of a recent industrial past were reimagined in the architect’s genius, restored then assimilated into a dynamic new facade featuring the Acquario di Genova, the largest aquarium in Europe; the Genoa Biosphere which contains the city’s futuristic botanical gardens; and the Bigo Crane, designed to resemble the shipping cranes that dominate the harbour skylines and which offers panoramic views of the rest of the city. Inevitably, the restoration project worked, millions of tourists now flocking to the city’s waterfront every year.
And a splash of baroque opulence - Genoa’s aristocratic quarters
Returning to Genoa’s city centre, Genoa’s Strade Nuove (“New Streets”) are stunning testament to the former wealth of the Genoese Republic, a constellation of aristocratic palazzi erected between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by the city’s ruling aristocracy. 163 palaces are to be found in Strade Nuove, the most impressive being known as the Palazzi dei Rolli in reference to a baroque document that listed those palaces that would be used to receive visiting dignitaries and royals from abroad as they embarked on what was known as the ‘Grand Tour’ of Italy.
Today, the Nuove Strade is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site and many of the former Palazzi dei Rolli are open to the public as museums. These include the Musei di Strada Nuova, a conglomeration of three palazzi (the Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco, and Palazzo Doria-Tursi) that contain between them a rich panoramic tapestry of European art from Rubens to Reni to Van Dyck to Guernico. The Palazzo Bianco even contains Caravaggio’s Ecce Hommo (c.1605-6/1609), his melancholic depiction of a death-bound Christ painted during the most unstable period of the artist’s infamously tumultuous life. Meanwhile, a visit to the Palazzo Stefano Balbi will give a glimpse into true Renaissance decadence, featuring period interiors that would give Versailles a run for its money, without the crowds.
Finally, rediscover the treasures of a forgotten art-world capital
In a country home to such art-world giants as Florence, Venice, and Rome, it is perhaps easy for cities like Genoa, whose names don’t always command the same respect, to slip beneath the shadows and quickly out-of-sight. This, however, is an unforgivable tragedy. Due to flourishing trade between Genoa’s maritime republic and Flanders during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the city became the point at which Italian and Flemish tastes met and delectably intertwined, birthing the Genoese school of painting, which counted among its disciples il Cappuccino and Alessandro Magnasco, and beckoned to the city the likes of Rubens and Van Dyck. The influence of this is seen in the artwork that hangs in the already-mentioned Musei di Strada Nuova - whose other important works include Reni’s Saint Sebastian (c.1615) and Hans Memling’s own Ecce Homo (c.1479) - and which is scattered secretively elsewhere throughout the city. The rather unhandsome and unassuming walls of the Chiesa Gesù (Church of Jesus and Saint Ambrose and Saint Andrew) for example, conceal masterpieces by both Rubens (The Circumcision, Miracles of St. Ignatius) and Reni (Assunzione della Vergine). It takes somebody with a true wanderer’s heart to discover all the artistic fruits that Genoa has to offer, but refuses to simply give away.
