Discover Genova

In March this year I had the luxury of five unplanned days before starting Italian lessons at Il Sasso Language School in Montepulciano. What to do? Where to go? My only criteria was that it had to be somewhere new. I chose Genova, the capital of Liguria, and I’m so happy that I did.

Once upon a time Genova was the strongest naval power in the western mediterranean. Today the city is majestic and complex with magnificent palaces and treasures of art and ancient fishing villages that have become its neighbourhoods.

She is rough and elegant and walking the streets is a continuous experience of the past and the present. In the Molo district there are the Sottoripa porticoes, which date back to the 12th century and are an exceptional example of Italy’s oldest public portico system. The street, protected from the sea, was a single row of shops at street level. The maintenance cost was the responsibility of the shopkeeper, who in return was given the house above the shop.

The typical “caruggi” (narrow streets) of the old town are one of the most extraordinary labyrinths in the world. Genova has the largest medieval historical centre in Europe and the greatest population density. Today, the historical centre is home to around 23,000 people who continue with their daily rituals in the maze of narrow, twisting streets. I was bewildered by the number of tiny fruit shops in one street and wondered how they all made a living, some being only two or three shops apart.

Everything is close from the butcher to the pastry shops to the fresh fish displayed at the front of miniscule hole-in-the-wall shops. Apartments are small and often people only have a small fridge, so walking around your neighbourhood, chatting with the shop vendors and buying only what’s in season and what is needed for the day is how Italians shop. It is a foreign concept to go to the supermarket and buy enough food to last the whole week.

Romeo Viganotti Cioccolateria

Hidden down the tiniest alleyway I found Romeo Viganotti. The Viganotti family has been making chocolate since 1866. Imagine. An ancient artisan workshop that uses vintage machinery and molds daily. Each chocolate is the result of “secret” recipes that have been handed down unchanged from one owner to the next for 159 years. Today they produce over 150 varieties, but there’s more. Just a few steps away is the pasticceria and the gelateria! All in the name of research I had to visit and sample from each.

In 1992 Genova hosted a World Expo to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage. Architect, Renzo Piano, radically changed the waterfront of the city and made it the centre for tourist, musical, cultural and sporting events, from concerts to regattas. In fact, last year Genova hosted the World Rowing Coastal Championships and was European Capital of Sport.

In the port you will find the Aquarium of Genova, the largest in Italy with the richest display of aquatic biodiversity in Europe. It is truly remarkable. The exhibition has around 10,000 specimens of 400 species from all the seas of the world in 61 tanks that occupy almost 10,000 square metres of space! The nearby Biosphere, also designed by Renzo Piano, is the home of butterflies, iguanas, ferns and various species of tropical plants that can live thanks to a special automatic arrangement using curtains placed on the inner walls of the sphere to allow the penetration of solar heat from the outside.

There is a special place to enjoy the complexity of Genoa and that is Spianata di Castelletto which is a like a large balcony suspended over the city in the elegant residential neighbourhood of Castelletto. Spread before your eyes are the medieval towers, baroque domes and slate roofs leading to the harbour that is the hub of life and commerce since time immemorial. To reach this belvedere, there is a lift or you can ascend the small streets that once led out of town.

A five kilometre walk from the old town led me to a seaside village of small coloured houses and fishing boats called Boccadasse. Now surrounded by the city of Genova, it has remained almost unchanged over time and is what you would imagine the village to have been like a hundred years ago. The small piazza that opens onto the bay is lively in the tourist season and a popular destination for people visiting Genova. Good to know is that L’Antica Gelateria Amadeo serves some of the best gelato in Italy!

The hamlet is also famous because it gave its name to the neighbourhood La Boca in Buenos Aires. During the Italian overseas emigration period, a Genoese community from Boccadasse established itself in Buenos Aires, creating the neighbourhood of La Boca, a tribute to the hamlet where they came from.

The famous Genovese pesto!

Pesto is the most Genovese of dishes because it demands very specific ingredients and steps. First, the basil must come from Liguria. There is a war on where exactly, but it is said that the herb must be from the Genovese neighbourhood of Pra’. The leaves are smaller and sweeter and delicate. Once washed they must be left to air dry. Towel drying will crush them prematurely and spoil the flavour.

The olive oil must be Ligurian as well, preferably (and usually always) from Taggia, where the olives are among the best. Of course, pine nuts from Liguria must follow, along with Sardinian pecorino, Parmigiano Reggiano and a good dose of garlic, but the latter can be optional.

These ingredients can only be suitably combined in a Genovese mortar, made of Tuscan marble, and using a wooden pestle to combine the ingredients delicately and gently. As simple as that!

Ci vediamo la prossima settimana.

Deb