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In a way I consider it mildly ironic. That when we first arrived, bright eyed and bushy tailed in Catania Sicily some nine weeks ago, we had dropped ourselves off somewhat off the beaten tourist path and got to experience an unfiltered and rather gritty side of the Italian urban landscape. If I remember correctly, it took me aback to some degree and it was only a number of days later that I managed to find my groove and appreciate Catania for what it was. And here we are, at the sunset of our ten week 2017 Italian survey, back in an unpolished part of this diverse country.

Perhaps calling Genoa unpolished is being unfair, though. After all, which city doesn’t have the odd blemish? Genoa does have a long and rich history, but like the book-burnings of WW2, Genoa’s strategic location as a port city during that same war led to merciless bombings that destroyed much of its original splendor. Houses were rebuilt, yes, but rarely to their previous, ostentatious standards yielding an overall visual impression that is conflicted at best. We did visit Via Garibaldi however, where Unesco heritage rated mansions are strung together into a dizzying array of opulence, but his feels like the exception and not the rule in Genoa.

Compared to our beloved Bologna and even Florence and Siena, Genoa is not what I would consider a clean city. Contrasted with Catania which also struggles somewhat with the logistics of a large number of residents, there are no orange blossoms to mask the odoriferous side-effects. While the narrow alleyways reinforce this impression, if you’re mindful of where you’re going Genoa, with its substantial historical district, will provide hours of safe and pleasant strolling. Now it’s up to us to power through the travel-fatigue and muster up the energy to head out and take in a broader sampling of what Genoa with surroundings have to offer.

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Funiculare are rail-based transports up the rocky hills on which Genoa is built. Stairs are everywhere and Google maps is really struggling with mapping a city that is really quite three-dimensional.

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