Discover Liguria 2026-27

Genoa.

Restored palaces, renovated museums and a historic centre returned to its original splendour are all extra reasons to visit Genoa, to make the most of the evenings to discover hidden corners and experience the city. The Cinque Terre, now a Nature Park and under UNESCO protection, need no introduction. Food curiosities: in the Cinque Terre, besides the excellent Sciacchetrà wine, now rare and very expensive, don’t forget the famous hand-processed Monterosso anchovy. Very well known, but certainly worth a mention, is Genoese pesto, made with the wonderfully fragrant basil grown in the hinterland of Genoa.

Portovenere.

Visiting Portovenere on a day of sunshine and blue sky is an experience that leaves its mark. The village, which owes its name to the temple of Venus that stood on the spot where the church of San Pietro now rises, has many noteworthy features: the beautiful row of multicoloured houses, the well-preserved urban layout, the castle looking down from above, the church of San Lorenzo and above all the church of San Pietro, which soars above the promontory in an exceptional position. Built in the thirteenth century, it is entirely in black and white stripes, as is typical of the churches of the area. And it is the perfect spot to admire the view over the coast and the island of Palmaria, the only inhabited island in Liguria, a nature reserve criss-crossed by paths through the Mediterranean scrub.

The Golden Age of the Genoese.

Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, enriched by dozens of new noble palaces, enlivened by magnificent open-air frescoes, its nobility portrayed by Rubens and then by his pupil Van Dyck, Genoa lived through the age of its greatest splendour. This period, known indeed as “the century of the Genoese”, can be dated more precisely from 1528, when the new oligarchic government was established, to the middle of the seventeenth century, when the construction of the New Walls was completed. The urban design and the finest buildings, so powerful and scenic even in the narrow spaces and on the slopes, bear witness to the originality and elegance of Genoese culture at that time.

Cinque Terre National Park.

Eighteen kilometres of rocky coastline rich in bays, beaches and deep waters, overlooked by a chain of mountains running parallel to the shore. Most distinctive are the terraces planted with vines and olives, held in place by ancient dry-stone walls. And then the paths and mule tracks that mark the centuries-old labour of generations to transform an inaccessible territory into places with breathtaking views, five unique villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore, which look out over a protected marine area. These, in brief, are the Cinque Terre, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as far back as 1997.

The Genoa San Giorgio Bridge is a motorway viaduct that spans the Polcevera stream and the districts of Sampierdarena and Cornigliano, in the city of Genoa. The bridge, planned to replace the first Polcevera viaduct, which partially collapsed on 14 August 2018 and was completely demolished in 2019, was designed by Renzo Piano, built by Webuild and Fincantieri and inaugurated on 3 August 2020. The architect’s design, produced through his Building Workshop practice, was officially presented on 7 September 2018. Built as a composite steel and concrete structure, it is 1,067 metres long and consists of 19 spans supported by 18 reinforced-concrete piers of constant elliptical section. The viaduct is lit by 18 main lamp posts in the centre of the carriageway, known as Pennoni (masts), plus others on the curves and at the junctions between the bridge and the Coronata tunnel and between the bridge and the A7. The viaduct is constantly monitored by four wheeled robots (which move along the outer rails of the viaduct) with articulated arms. The role of these automatons is to inspect the underside of the bridge and clean the wind barriers and solar panels.

The historic centre of Genoa is home to splendid artistic and architectural treasures, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. These are the so-called “Strade Nuove” (New Streets), home to the magnificent “Palazzi dei Rolli”, a series of noble residences in Renaissance and Baroque style built between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These palaces, with their elegance, represented the greatness of Genoa in the eyes of the world and were listed in the city’s registers (the rolli), from which the residences chosen to host illustrious guests on state visits were drawn. The forty-two palaces, fully restored and inscribed among the World Heritage Sites, are the first example in Europe of urban planning carried out by the city authorities to a unified design and to meet specific organisational and ceremonial needs. It was in 1551, during the flourishing oligarchic Republic re-founded by Admiral Andrea Doria, that construction of the Strade Nuove began, destined to become the city’s “well-to-do quarter”: here were the residences of the most important aristocratic families of the age, the new governing class. The first “rolli” were officially issued in 1576 and contained a list of the palaces divided into “bussoli” by category of quality, rather as hotels are classified today by their stars. The architectural refinement of the palaces, the elegance of the façades, the richness of the decorations and works of art inside, the imposing entrance staircases, the inner courtyards adorned with splendid loggias and verdant gardens make this a unique place to visit. The most prestigious palaces, which belonged to the first category of the rolli, are in Via Lomellini, Via Garibaldi and Via Balbi. Among the finest are surely the seventeenth-century Palazzo Rodolfo e Francesco Maria Brignole, or “Palazzo Rosso”, and the sixteenth-century Palazzo Luca Grimaldi, or “Palazzo Bianco”, and Palazzo Niccolò Grimaldi, or Doria Tursi, the most majestic in Via Garibaldi. The three residences today house the first section of the Musei di Strada Nuova and important collections of Italian, Flemish and Spanish art, among which stand out works by Guercino, Veronese, Anthony Van Dyck and Caravaggio, and Canova’s celebrated “Penitent Magdalene”. Then there is, in Via Balbi, the Palazzo Reale, built in the seventeenth century by the Balbi family and, in the nineteenth century, the residence of the royal family of Savoy. The palace, today a museum complex of twenty-three rooms, is destined to remain etched in the memory of every visitor for its monumental atrium with eighteenth-century stuccoes, its hanging garden, the noble apartment on the second floor, the Throne Room, the Ballroom and the Hall of Mirrors. In Largo Eros Lanfranco we find Palazzo Doria-Spinola, built for Admiral Antonio Doria, a relative of the more famous Andrea, with its magnificent interior salons, its Renaissance courtyard and the frescoes of the Tapestry Room and the Great Hall. Also very special, for the Renaissance elegance of its colonnades, its grand staircase and its hanging gardens, is Palazzo Durazzo-Pallavicini. To name all the Palazzi dei Rolli is impossible: only a visit, through the streets of the historic centre of this splendid city of art, in search of this age of splendour, court balls and affairs of state, can convey the sense of a place where time seems to have stood still.