We’re back home. The nice thing is that, if you call two places home, you get to be back home quite often. The Significant Other and I are spending the week after Easter at our “South” home in Genoa. And we can enjoy it to the fullest, as we are off from our jobs that pay the bills. So let’s take the camera and head out to the Streets of Genoa for a short stroll through the alleys of the medieval old town. “Benvegnûi” means “welcome” in the Genoese dialect…for a few more quick shots continue after the jump….
From our place we can reach the “centro storico“, the medieval old town of Genoa, with a twenty minute walk. We enter it via the “Sottoripa”, stretching under the waterfront buildings along Piazza Caricamento and the old harbor area from Piazza Cavour, home of the fish market, to Via al Ponte Calvi. Sottoripa includes the oldest known public arcades in Italy: in fact, they were begun between 1125 and 1133.
Beyond the first row buildings on the waterfront begins the maze of narrow streets between the medieval merchant houses, many over 6 stories high. Looking up to the sky gives a good expression how narrow and dark some of the old alleys are. Genoa has one of the largest and most original medieval town centers in all of Europe. A street photographers paradise during the day and at night.
In these small streets, where the smells, tastes, languages and cultures of the great historic port city mingle, you can find the true spirit of Genoa. The old town, more than any other part of the city, has always been a melting pot of diverse professions and cultures. Here, squeezed between the hills and the sea, rich Genoese merchants and noblemen have built their sumptuous residences where works of art have been collected and preserved for centuries. Many of these palazzi are now museums.
Two marble lions guard the entrance to the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, erected around the year 1098 on an earlier basilica from the 5th-6th centuries. The cathedral was named after the martyr San Lorenzo. It holds the ashes of the city’s patron saint, St. John the Baptist, brought to Genoa from the Holy Land by the knights of the First Crusade.
These view images from our little stroll should give you a good impression why we so much enjoy our new home away from home. And for sure you will get to see more of “La Superba”, as Genoa is affectionately known, in the future.
I took all of these photographs with my iPhone 14 Pro. Post processing in Lightroom Classic.
Have a great Tuesday
Marcus
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