Genoese charms

Austere, rich in culture, history and traditions, sometimes a bit reserved and guarded. This is Genoa, an ancient maritime republic, the capital of Liguria, a well-known Italian port city, and the destination elected in this year's Best in Travel 2025 edition of the Lonely Planet guidebook. Chosen for its originality, mild climate and defense of its historical values. There is still little luxury shopping but delving into the alleys of the center (caruggi) one finds a wealth of excellent typical food and wine products offered by the city's many stores: pesto from Prà, focaccia, fried fish and tasty pansoti in walnut sauce just to name a few. Local foods, sumptuous dwellings and Ligurian tradition mingling with a presence of African flavors and its inhabitants who live here integrated into the social fabric telling of distant lands and a sometimes difficult life.
Determined to reopen itself to the world, the Superb made us admire unique 16th-century palaces, leaving journalists, operators and investors speechless, all “stunned” by the beauty and splendor of frescoes, marbles and excellent wines and dishes of a simple cuisine that this land can offer thanks to a privileged position between mountains and sea. 
Transportation and surroundings. Inaugurated the new Genoa City Airport Cristoforo Colombo area to strengthen Genoa's role as an international tourism hub. A 5,500 sq. m. pavilion with duty free, services and departure hall supported by innovative technological facilities and greater environmental sustainability. Three new routes to Budapest, Krakow and Warsaw are ready. The treadmill bridge connecting to the new train station from the airport will be opened in 2026.
To experience the sea and enjoy the scenic beauty, just move to the east of the city through the rich VIP district of Albaro. We recommend spending a few days, or at least stopping in Nervi, strolling through the park to visit Villa Frugone and admire Boccadasse, an ancient and romantic fishing village, whose name probably derives from the conformation of the bay that resembles the shape of a “donkey's mouth” in dialect “Bocca d'azë”.
In addition to the well-known Aquarium of Genoa, the maritime area of the old port is home to the interesting Galata Museo del mare: on three floors you can discover the port as it was in the 1400s, Columbus and the voyages of exploration, the history of the galleys that conquered the Mediterranean (you can go on one), the arsenal of the Republic, the merchant ships of the 1700s and 1800s, and the history of the transition from sailing to steam navigation.
Gourmet and Sports. Typical food and wine initiatives make chefs the ambassadors of the quality of local products. “You also eat a cultural product of a people and talk about the happiness of being disconnected. Food and wine tourism is often in places without connection. Think of the Slow food phenomenon and the important value of this market, which stands at about 40 billion in 2024, significant numbers that impact GDP”, explains Elena Bianco, Travel&Food journalist and member of GIST Italian tourism press group. “We created the Travel Food Award of encouragement for those territorial realities that are committed to the enhancement and preservation of the gastronomic-cultural heritage through the promotion of a gourmand tourism marked by respect for the environment. We need to consume less and better, and I think food and wine tourism can also create education”.
Genoa has always boasted a strong presence in the maritime industry but has every intention of focusing on new cards by moving, “from heavy industry to thinking industry”, Stefano Balleari President of the Regional Council of Liguria, explained during the press conference at the hall of the Minor Consiglio in the Ducal Palace. “Our city has enormous potential. On luxury shopping we started a little late but we are working on it”, he confides. “We are banking on family-friendly hubs such as the Aquarium and the Children's City. We have the second most impressive city wall after the Great Wall of China. Bicycle routes from the sea to the mountains are expected from 2027, and we are confident in the success of the project because Genoa has a mild climate all year round. Soon the cable car between the Maritime Station and Forte Begato will be ready, which can also be reached by walking the path of the ancient walls if you are a professional trakker”. 
La Superba hosts events such as The Ocean Race Europe 2025 and the Red Bull Cerro Abajo, a well-known urban downhill race, the most spectacular and extreme in the world. Events such as Euroflora, from April 24 to May 4, 2025, will look at reducing consumption. A paradise of many shades of green and endless colors of flowers with estimates of at least 850,000 visitors. “We will continue to promote our historical-artistic-cultural heritage that is why we are implementing the Visitgenova tourist destination portal with the inclusion of artificial intelligence,” points out Alessandra Bianchi, City Councilor for Tourism and Sports. 
Focusing on experiences and emotions. Sixteenth-century music, precious paintings, tastings between sweet and bitter evoking the cuisine of the past is the Rolli Experience. It is d an initiative that Genoa dedicates to the Palazzi dei Rolli (registers or roles used to indicate the most prestigious residences that housed princes, dukes, cardinals, popes, their families and their servants). Splendid aristocratic residences that are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Rolli Days allow you to step into the shoes of the guest of the ancient Republic by immersing yourself in the history and luxury of staying in these unique atmospheres with medieval lunches or dinners enjoying spiced wines and excellent food served by waiters in period dress while admiring, seated at convivial circular tables, the fine furnishings and frescoed ceilings while musical notes complete the experience. Date availability is listed at www.visitgenoa.it/it/rolli-experience-0
“It is increasingly important to attract to Italy, and therefore also to Genoa, a high-spending clientele by creating a new industry to fill the losses of the automotive segment”, explains Dina Ravera, an electrical engineer, a past in the well-known consulting firm Mckinsey & Company now at the top of Destination Italy. “Just 3 percent more very wealthy tourists is enough to change the country's economic scenario. We have the potential, one suggestion is to work on well-structured forms of -widespread hospitality- and on security,” the manager points out.
Must-see Palaces. Palazzo Rosso, or palazzo Francesco Ridolfo Brignole Sale is at 18 Via Garibaldi, in the historic center. It is one of the Palazzi dei Rolli designated, at the time of the Republic of Genoa, to house high-ranking families on behalf of the government. The building stands among the 42 Palazzi dei Rolli selected and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site on July 13, 2006. It houses the first section of the Strada Nuova Museums, which also include Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Doria-Tursi, dedicated to the family's art collections. Brignole Sale (1643-1693), the son of Anton Giulio Brignole Sale and Paolina Adorno, immortalized in the famous pair of portraits by Antoon van Dyck, following the death of his brother Rodolfo became the owner of the entire palace and commissioned its decoration from the leading artists of the second half of the 17th century in Genoa. 
Also among the recommended visits is one to Palazzo Tursi. The building was erected beginning in 1565 by Domenico and Giovanni Ponsello for the banker Niccolò Grimaldi (1524-1593). It is the most majestic building on the street and represents the height of the residential splendor of the Genoese aristocracy. In 1575, Philip II of Spain, Grimaldi's principal debtor, declared a suspension of payments; for the Genoese it was ruin. Ceded in 1593, it came to Gio Andrea Doria, prince of Melfi. After more than two centuries, the House of Savoy acquired the palace in 1820. Then given for a few years in use to the Jesuits, the palace on June 15, 1850 became the property and headquarters of the City of Genoa. Today, in addition to the five rooms intended to complete the Palazzo Bianco's picture gallery itinerary with 18th-century paintings such as Antonio Canova's Magdalene, one can admire the monumental spaces and a series of rooms housing different sections of the civic collections: weights and measures of the ancient Republic of Genoa, collections of coins and medals, ceramics, tapestries, and, a must-see, the violin of the famous Genoese violinist and composer Nicolò Paganini, who in his will earmarked his favorite instrument, what he had nicknamed “my cannon” because of the fullness of its sound, for his hometown.
Where to stay. We recommend the historic five-star hotels: the Grand Hotel Savoia a few meters from the Genoa Piazza Principe station and the Grand Hotel Bristol on the well-known and central Via XX Settembre.If you decide to spend a vacation in Nervi, defiladed from the city center, we recommend the five-star luxury hotel Capitolo Riviera: “born to open a new chapter in the hospitality of Nervi, it is a green retreat where luxury, natural beauty and impeccable service come together in perfect harmony, lingering on the Riviera as a tale of passion, dedication and projection into the future,” they tell us.And we, admiring from the top of the modern terrace the immensity of the open sea, believe it.Deluxu.it Magazine - Rights Reserved