Description
The Spianata di Castelletto is Genoa's most famous panoramic terrace: the Luigi Montaldo viewpoint, about 80 metres above the sea, looks out right over the old town, with its roofs, bell towers and harbour spread out below you.
The view is one of the best-known and most authentic images of the city, already spread by photographs in the early 20th century. Gino Paoli compared that expanse of roofs to a great tortoise with grey scales.
Among the roofs you can pick out the palaces of Strada Nuova, that is Via Garibaldi, the bell towers of San Lorenzo and of the Vigne, the Porto Antico and, to the west, the Lanterna and the cranes of the modern port. Right below the terrace are the city council offices with their roof gardens designed by Franco Albini.
The nicest way to get here is the Castelletto lift, from the early 20th century, which climbs 57 metres from Piazza del Portello. At the bottom you enter through a long decorated tunnel; at the top you come out in an Art Nouveau kiosk with glass windows.
The poet Giorgio Caproni dedicated a poem to it, The Lift: to go to heaven, he wrote, he would have liked to take the Castelletto lift. Some of his lines are reproduced on a plaque in the entrance tunnel.
The Art Nouveau wooden cabins have been rebuilt to the original early 20th-century designs. To get back to the centre you can walk down the old brick crêuze, between little houses and the backs of noble palaces.
The name comes from a fortress, the Castelletto, which dominated the hill, once called Monte Albano: an ideal spot for keeping an eye on the city and the harbour. The first tower dates from 1161, and in 1402 the French governor Boucicaut made it his headquarters.
For the Genoese it was the symbol of foreign oppression. In 1528 the people destroyed it; the Savoys rebuilt it in 1819 to keep uprisings in check, and in 1849 the city in revolt razed it to the ground again, this time for good.
In its place, from the mid-19th century, elegant residential buildings went up. In nearby Piazza Goffredo Villa there is a bronze war memorial, an early work by Francesco Messina, with three soldiers throwing hand grenades.
The view is one of the best-known and most authentic images of the city, already spread by photographs in the early 20th century. Gino Paoli compared that expanse of roofs to a great tortoise with grey scales.
Among the roofs you can pick out the palaces of Strada Nuova, that is Via Garibaldi, the bell towers of San Lorenzo and of the Vigne, the Porto Antico and, to the west, the Lanterna and the cranes of the modern port. Right below the terrace are the city council offices with their roof gardens designed by Franco Albini.
The nicest way to get here is the Castelletto lift, from the early 20th century, which climbs 57 metres from Piazza del Portello. At the bottom you enter through a long decorated tunnel; at the top you come out in an Art Nouveau kiosk with glass windows.
The poet Giorgio Caproni dedicated a poem to it, The Lift: to go to heaven, he wrote, he would have liked to take the Castelletto lift. Some of his lines are reproduced on a plaque in the entrance tunnel.
The Art Nouveau wooden cabins have been rebuilt to the original early 20th-century designs. To get back to the centre you can walk down the old brick crêuze, between little houses and the backs of noble palaces.
The name comes from a fortress, the Castelletto, which dominated the hill, once called Monte Albano: an ideal spot for keeping an eye on the city and the harbour. The first tower dates from 1161, and in 1402 the French governor Boucicaut made it his headquarters.
For the Genoese it was the symbol of foreign oppression. In 1528 the people destroyed it; the Savoys rebuilt it in 1819 to keep uprisings in check, and in 1849 the city in revolt razed it to the ground again, this time for good.
In its place, from the mid-19th century, elegant residential buildings went up. In nearby Piazza Goffredo Villa there is a bronze war memorial, an early work by Francesco Messina, with three soldiers throwing hand grenades.