Genoa Audio Tours

Petrarch called Genoa 'La Superba' in the 14th century and the name stuck, partly because it is accurate. The city is one of the oldest continuously inhabited in the world, and the Republic of Genoa dominated Mediterranean trade for over 700 years until Napoleon ended it in 1797. The Bank of Saint George, founded in 1407, is considered the oldest state deposit bank in the world. Christopher Columbus was born here around 1451. Nicolo Paganini, the violinist, grew up in these streets. The architect Renzo Piano, who rebuilt the waterfront for the 1992 Columbian Celebrations and then designed the replacement for the Ponte Morandi after its 2018 collapse, is Genoese.

The caruggi, the medieval alleyways that make up one of Europe's largest and most densely populated historic centres, are what make Genoa unlike anywhere else in Italy.

You can spend an hour walking through them without covering much ground: they are narrow enough that neighbours on opposite sides could shake hands from their windows, and they open unexpectedly into small piazzas that let in a blast of sky. The Via Garibaldi and Via Cairoli, known as the Strade Nuove, were built in the 16th and 17th centuries to display the wealth of Genoese aristocracy and now form a UNESCO World Heritage corridor of palaces.