by Real Traveler CristinaZ
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Wonderful Genoa!

From Wonderful Genoa! in Genoa, Italy on Apr 22 '09

This entry is about:

architecture, natural wonder, food & wine, art & museum

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3 Places Visited

Locanda di Palazzo Cicala

"The best hotel I've ever been to!"
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Lanterna

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When I first ‘met’ Genoa it was the end of April, and I fell in love with the Superba straight away. “Superba” literally means “Proud”, but is actually a different way of saying “Grand”, referring to the historical period of the “Repubbliche Marinare” when Genoa, together with Venice, Amalfi and Pisa, was one of the greatest and most powerful harbors all over Italy.
When I first 'met' Genoa it was the end of April, and I fell in love with the Superba straight away...
As I was saying, I reached Genoa by train from Nice when it was the end of March and the weather was already warming up. I got off at Piazza Principe train station quite early in the morning, and a cab drove me down to a little hotel right in the city centre. He had to drive down to the harbor area and then back again due to all the one-ways and pedestrian areas and the narrow “caruggi”, so typical of the old part of the city centre.
If you are car-addicted, better not to come to Genoa, where even locals try to avoid driving at rush hours. You enjoy Genoa atmosphere much more simply by strolling around and smelling the sea fresh air and all the little shops’ flavors.
The morning was simply a wandering around, strolling down what had previously been just a quick glimpse from the cab.
I started off from the main square in Genoa, the huge piazza De Ferrari with its astounding buildings (Palazzo Ducale being just one among the many) and its majestic fountain, carried down along via san Lorenzo, which is pedestrian area and takes you down to the harbor (known as Porto Antico). I stopped by to visit the inside of san Lorenzo cathedral, sat down for a while to get used to everything around me. I was surrounded by history. You have to ‘breathe’ the places around you to get, to feel the real atmosphere; otherwise you better just sit at home and read a good touristic guide.
Left the san Lorenzo cathedral behind, I turned right down into via di Scurreria with its little shops and got to piazza Campetto, which opens in front of you out of nowhere quite surprisingly; you wonder how on earth they have managed to get a square out of the confusing maze of these “caruggi”, but they have… . Anyone would got amazed by piazza san Matteo and its church and its Doria buildings. I got a quick “focaccia semplice” on the way, not wanting to lose one single minute of this, and I carried on along via Luccoli with its tea & chocolate tiny shops and then back to via Macelli di Soziglia, where quite impressively they have concentrated little shops selling meat and fish. Walking backwards I ended up in piazza Banchi, where I definitely lost track of time visiting the only church I have even seen built on a sort of first floor (history says that the church was built having rooms to be rented on its ground floor in order for the church community to get some money, and still today there are shops) and then buying flowers at a local flower stand and getting amazed by local paintings. The harbor was just there, with its fish shops, bakeries, focaccerie, bars, and Chinese & Indian shops selling all kinds of stuff along Sottoripa, which is under the arcades and smells of sea and smoke and witness local people’s chats first thing in the morning.
Afternoon coffee in piazza delle Erbe and had a chat with one of the waitresses, who suggested me where to buy good home-made pesto and local “trofie” (pasta). The remaining part of the afternoon was for the Palazzi dei Rolli (Palazzo Bianco, Palazzo Rosso and Palazzo Tursi) along the astounding via Garibaldi. You should really pay attention to their amazing insides!
I had just time enough for a quick shower and quick nap at the hotel before getting started again. A local friend picked me up, took me for a quick tour at the harbor just when the sun was setting down, coloring sea and sky of orange and pink and giving us a spectacular view over the hills around Genoa. Then we drove along the sea-front, off to Boccadasse for dinner, but that is another story.

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