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Genova Holidays, Offers and Itineraries
City of art and metropolis looking onto the sea, Genoa has grown up around the city's port - a natural cove that has always been the site of thriving traffic and commerce. Its ancient heart, Europe's biggest historic medieval center, is crisscrossed by a tight weave of alleys that capture the multicultural soul that has always characterized the city's history. Here, among workshops, eateries, and beautiful shops, glimmers a glimpse of the noble past of Genoa, "La Superba", consisting of sixteenth-century villas, Baroque votive aedicules, and prestigious churches giving onto small squares nestled between the buildings.
Modernity is a few steps away, in places returned to the people and tourists by restoration and great urban renewal projects conducted over the last decade.
The Expo with the Aquarium, Via San Lorenzo, the Palazzo Ducale, and the splendid Via Garibaldi full of museums. The city's charm can also be found in the numerous delegations from Nervi to Voltri - autonomous cities until the 20's - where visitors can explore villas surrounded by nineteenth-century parks, picturesque sea strolls, and museums large and small.
Parchi di Nervi
From the Viale delle Palme - where you can stroll between two rows of palms with tall trunks and thick fronds - we leave the station parking area behind us and enter the Parchi di Nervi. Born from the union of the gardens of Villa Grimaldi (home of the Frugone Collection), Villa Serra (home of the Modern Art Gallery), and Villa Groppallo, the 25 acres of green can be explored following the paths through wide English-style lawns, cluster pines with crowns like umbrellas, and large palm trees. Among them rises the majestic and rare Giant of Chile, one of few specimens in Italy. Indigenous to South America and recognizable by its broad, squat trunk, it is approximately 150 years old and 10 meters tall. Not far off, the rose garden is at its best when flowering, from April to November. A few more steps away is the sea: whether calm or blustery, it's always a beautiful sight for observers along the two kilometers of the Anita Garibaldi trail, which follows the curve of the cliff and leads to the small harbor at Nervi, the heart of the ancient fishing village. From the trail, the view can reach all the way to the Portofino Promontory and west to Cape Mortola. Along the way visitors can pause to rest at establishments featuring outdoor tables, gaze at the villas half hidden by olive trees and flowers, and the Saracen tower and the castle. Before heading into the city center, we suggest a visit to the museum of Villa Luxoro, near Capolungo, with an entrance on via Aurelia,
Villetta Dinegro - downtown Genoa
From Nervi, you reach the city center traveling across ten kilometers of the city overlooking the sea. Arriving in Piazza Corvetto, looking past the statue dedicated to Mazzini, you'll immediately catch a glimpse of the waterfall that cuts through the evergreen park of Villetta Dinegro: an oasis of calm reached in a just few steps, leaving behind the roar of the city, known above all because it houses the Edoardo Chiossone Oriental Art Museum. Large Buddhist sculptures, weapons and suits of armor, ceramics and porcelain, clothing and fabrics, enamels, masks, and ancient paintings: elements and images of the permanent exhibit that add their allure to the attractions outside. From the museum's terrace there is an exceptional view over the rooftops of the 16th century villas on Via Garibaldi and the Medieval slate of the historic center, along to the "Lanterna" lighthouse. Along the walkways of camelias and grand trees surrounding the late 19th-century statue dedicated to Giuseppe Mazzini, the half-length Carrara marble statue depicting the poet Giosuè Carducci, and rare flowers, discover the unique nature of this urban oasis, complete with a pond and Chinese gazebo atop the hill. Visitors with a little time to spare and admirers of the centuries old trees can proceed to Piazza Manin, a few blocks away, and take the historic train toward Casella, located inland. Here, on via Fieschi, admire a spectacular Cedar of Lebanon that is three hundred years old and thirty meters tall.
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