We return home. The nice thing is, if you call two places home, you’ll be coming home a lot. The Significant Other and I spent the week after Easter in our “Southern” home in Genoa. And we can enjoy it to the fullest, because we quit our bill-paying jobs. So let’s grab the camera and head to the Streets of Genoa for a short stroll through the alleyways of the medieval old town. “Benvegnûi” means “welcome” in Genoese dialect…for some quick shots, continue after the jump….
From our place we can reach the “centro storico”, the medieval old town of Genoa, by walking twenty minutes. We enter via the “Sottoripa”, which runs under the waterfront buildings along Piazza Caricamento and the old harbor area from Piazza Cavour, where the fish market is, to Via al Ponte Calvi. Sottoripa is among the oldest known public arcades in Italy: in fact, it started between 1125 and 1133.
Behind the first row of buildings on the waterfront begins a labyrinth of narrow streets between medieval merchant houses, which are more than 6 stories high. Gazing up at the sky gave a good expression of how narrow and dark some of the old alleys were. Genoa has one of the largest and most original medieval city centers in all of Europe. A street photographer’s paradise by day and by night.
In these small streets, where the smells, tastes, languages and cultures of a large historic port city mingle, you can discover the true spirit of Genoa. The old city, more than any other part of the city, has always been a melting pot of various professions and cultures. Here, sandwiched between the hills and the sea, wealthy Genoese merchants and nobles had built their lavish residences where works of art have been collected and preserved through the ages. Many of these palazzi are now museums.
Two marble lions guard the entrance to the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, erected around 1098 in an earlier basilica from the 5th to 6th centuries. The cathedral is named after the martyr San Lorenzo. It houses the ashes of the city’s patron saint, St. John the Baptist, brought to Genoa from the Holy Land by knights of the First Crusade.
These scenic images from our little walk should give you a good impression of why we enjoy our new home away from home so much. And for sure you will see more of “La Superba”, as Genoa is affectionately known, in the future.
I took all these photos with my iPhone 14 Pro. Post processing in Lightroom Classic.
Have a nice Tuesday
Marcus
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Weekend at La Superba
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