Description
This Genoa private walking tour starts at Porta Soprana, the medieval gate of the old walls, beside the house where Christopher Columbus is said to have been born, now a museum. From there you reach Piazza de Ferrari, with its bronze fountain and the Ducal Palace, the regional government building and the opera house around it.
The route dives into the maze of alleys to the Palazzi dei Rolli, the homes of the Genoese nobility, now a World Heritage Site and clustered along Via Garibaldi. A plaque marks the building where Goffredo Mameli, author of the Italian national anthem, was born.
- San Lorenzo Cathedral, with its black and white marble facade, two lions at the door and an unexploded wartime bomb inside
- Porto Antico, redesigned by Renzo Piano
- The Aquarium, the Biosphere and the Bigo, seen from outside
The walk ends beside the Neptune galleon, a replica of a 17th-century Spanish ship used as a set for a Peter Pan series. A licensed guide leads the whole route, in English or Italian.