Things to do in Genoa

Neighborhood · Centro storico

One of Europe's largest medieval old towns — a maze of alleys a metre or two wide, opening onto a street of sixteenth-century palaces inscribed by UNESCO.

Local tip: Via Garibaldi's Palazzi dei Rolli were private houses required to host visiting dignitaries; three of them are now the Musei di Strada Nuova on one ticket. Go into the courtyards even when the museums are shut — most of the gates are open in the daytime and nobody minds.

Food · East of the centre, on the Corso Italia

A fishing cove of ochre houses swallowed by the city but never rebuilt, at the end of the seafront promenade.

Local tip: It is genuinely lovely and genuinely crowded at weekends. Walk the Corso Italia from Foce and arrive on foot rather than trying to park; the gelato queue is the point, and the pebble beach is small enough that arriving early matters.

Landmark · Across the hillsides

A network of lifts and funicular railways that climb from the old town to the hill districts and count as ordinary public transport.

Local tip: The Castello d'Albertis–Montegalletto lift runs horizontally through the hill before it goes up, which is not a thing most cities have. The Zecca–Righi funicular takes you to the ring of nineteenth-century forts above the city and a walk along the walls with the whole gulf below.

Nature · 9km east, still inside the comune

A former resort village absorbed by the city, with a cliff-top promenade cut into the rock and a chain of villa parks running down to the sea.

Local tip: The Passeggiata Anita Garibaldi along the cliffs is the best two kilometres of walking in Genoa. The parks hold four separate museums, and the whole thing is twenty minutes from Brignole on the regional train.

Culture · Old harbour

Renzo Piano's reworking of the old port for 1992, with Italy's largest aquarium, the Bigo lift and an open waterfront where there had been fences.

Local tip: The aquarium is genuinely good and genuinely busy; go at opening or in the last two hours. The rest of the Porto Antico is free and is where Genoa spends its Sunday — the Biosfera and the panoramic Bigo are cheap add-ons rather than the main event.

Nature · The ridge above the city

A seventeenth-century wall system running along the ridge line, with a chain of forts on top and one of the longest defensive circuits in Europe.

Local tip: Take the Zecca–Righi funicular up and walk west along the walls towards Forte Sperone and Forte Begato. It is free, almost empty on a weekday, and the drop away to the port on one side and the Apennines on the other explains Genoa's geography better than any map.