The historic Italian coastal city that most tourists forget about

Times

30-04-2025

Andrea Doria rather fancied himself and his clan — perhaps justifiably. The admiral had led the offensive to liberate the Genoese republic from the French in 1528 and the newly built Palazzo del Principe, just beyond the capital's medieval centre, was to be his political and military base. In one room a portrait by the Florentine painter Bronzino shows Doria's arm wrapped around a ship's mast, his beard and virile pose alluding to Neptune, god of the sea. On the walls of the loggia terrace, overlooking the harbour, Doria's seafaring ancestors are represented as Roman heroes. One had defeated Pisa in battle, another Venice, yet another the Catalans. This was Genoa in the 16th century: a powerful maritime republic run by aristocratic families such as the Dorias that was soon to become Europe's banking capital as it financed Spain's campaigns in the Americas.
Genoa in the 21st century? It's more of a pitstop than a base. The view from the palace gardens sums it up. To the left is the city's main railway station, the gateway to the Italian Riviera for second-homers from Turin and Milan. To the right looms the MSC World Europa cruise ship with its sparkling spiral slide, about to depart on a seven-day trip around the Med. Slicing right across the harbour front is the sopraelevata, a roaring elevated road that takes travellers from Genoa airport to the glitzy hotels of Portofino and the Cinque Terre. This northwestern port city isn't somewhere visitors linger, the panorama says, but rather a crossroads, somewhere travellers tend to pass through on their way elsewhere.
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The upshots of this are obvious. While Florence, Rome and Venice are all fighting back against overtourism, Genoa rarely feels too busy — in fact many locals would like the cruisers to stick around longer than just a few hours. The hilly, labyrinthine centre hasn't been hollowed out by short-term lets. And if you avoid the shops near the cruise terminal, prices are clearly aimed at residents rather than tourists (you're talking €1 for a large slice of focaccia). It's lively and diverse, more like Naples or Palermo than its affluent northern neighbours Milan and Turin, and the Genoese are fiercely proud and welcoming. The city may not havemany headline attractions beyond the hulking Renzo Piano-designed aquarium on the waterfront, but in every restaurant, shop or small museum you get the sense of being let in on a secret few others know about.
Most alluring, though, are the stories from Genoa's illustrious (and often forgotten) past. Alongside Doria, another name that figures prominently in the Genoese annals is Durazzo. Nine members of this Italian dynasty were doges — elected heads of state — when Genoa was an independent republic between 1099 and 1797. Now you can stay inside one of the family's ancestral homes, a seven-storey harbourside mansion that dates to 1624, which has been restored and turned into a luxury hotel. It's a brilliantly extravagant place to immerse yourself in the history of what was once one of the world's richest cities.
The Palazzo Durazzo Suites are sandwiched between the old docks and the tangle of medieval alleyways known as the caruggi. You enter its cavernous entrance hall via a nondescript wooden door on the Via del Campo, the soaring ceilings and family insignia originally intended to dazzle foreign dignitaries. A red-carpeted stone staircase leads you to reception on the third floor, the double-height piano nobile, where our suite, Il Doge, gives onto the sopraelevata and the yachts and shipping containers beyond. My girlfriend Morwenna and I are immediately drawn in by the ceiling. Neptune — him again — snoozes on a rock. The adverse winds are chained to the shore; swirling zephyrs ensure calm seas and safety for the Genoese people. In this fresco by the artist Domenico Parodi the god represents the former owner Stefano Durazzo — who was galleys and war magistrate, and doge in the 1730s — lording it over the dockyards beneath the window (and the enemies out at sea). From the kingsize bed with a canopy shaped like a doge's hat, which looks tiny in the context of the 7m-high room, we feel suitably humbled.
It's one of many features, from the gold-painted façade to the 18th-century terrazzo floors, that have been meticulously restored as part of a seven-year renovation, overseen by the architect Emanuela Brignone Cattaneo, wife of the Durazzo descendant Giacomo Cattaneo Adorno. Each of the 12 suites is unique and feels like a work of art. Some rooms have more traditional decor — the Oriente with its gilded tritons by Parodi, the Quattro Stagioni with its own private chapel — whereas others go in for a cleaner, more contemporary vibe. Le Conchighlie has a side room with a shell-covered ceiling inspired by the grottoes of the Ligurian coastline, while La Cupola is an all-white family suite with vaulted ceilings that looks like something from a sci-fi film. All original wooden doors and muted yellows and greens, ours is firmly at the more conservative end — sleeping Stefano deserves some respect, after all — but the sleek grey-painted bathroom with a walk-in shower and Diptyque products offers a splash of modern magnificence.
The hotel belongs to the Palazzi dei Rolli, a Unesco world heritage site comprising 42 palaces that aristocratic merchant and banker families built to host important guests such as diplomats and royalty on behalf of the Genoese Republic during the 16th and 17th centuries. To get a sense of Genoa in its glamorous heyday, we wander along the Via Garibaldi, ten minutes' walk from the hotel, where the most OTT mansions are found. The Palazzo Rosso, now an art gallery, holds Chinese vases so big and beautiful you'll want to keep at least five metres clear of them (£8; museidigenova.it); the Palazzo Carrega-Cataldi, home to Genoa's Chamber of Commerce, has a spectacular rococo golden gallery inspired by Versailles' hall of mirrors (free; visitgenoa.it); and the private museum Palazzo Lomellino hides a garden filled with follies, fountains and statues (£7; palazzolomellino.org). Much like central Venice and Rome, these palaces give the city the feel of an open-air museum. The key difference? We don't hear a single British or American accent all day.
Squeezed between the Apennine Mountains and the Ligurian Sea, Genoa is known for its winds, and in autumn and winter it can drizzle all day long (I speak from experience). But you also have those harsh landscapes to thank for much of the finest local produce. Between our palazzo stops we duck into I Tre Merli, in a former customs building on the marina, for creamy trofie al pesto, small pasta twists with boiled potatoes and green beans in the sauce that Genoa is perhaps most famous for. The intense flavour of the basil comes from a mix of sun and the salty sea air that blows over neighbourhoods such as Pra, where the best stuff is grown (mains from £12; itremerli.it). Other hearty dishes that offer a remedy for the chill are the pesto-topped minestrone and île flottante-like custard dessert sciumette at the soup specialist Zupp (mains from £11; zupp.it) on the Piazza di San Matteo, the Doria family's former stomping ground; and the stockfish, olive and pine nut stew — proper sailor's food — at the snug, family-run Le Rune, just outside the city's historic core (mains from £13; ristorantelerune.it).
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A storm rages on our penultimate evening as we tuck into perfectly cooked sea-bass-stuffed ravioli at the wine bar and restaurant Locanda Spinola, a few minutes' walk from the hotel (mains from £8; locandaspinola.com). When we get back we find there has been a power cut and we are guided inside by a doorman with his phone torch, parking ourselves in the enormous lounge bar, where battery-powered lamps are in action. The vibe is less horror movie and more sleepover-style overexcitement: we make the most of the occasion by sinking into the three-cushion-deep red velvet sofas and exploring the wines from the owners' Villa Cambiaso estate in the hills near Genoa; the O Cona Coronata Val Polcevera white is light, fruity sunshine in a glass.
The morning after brings low-key surprise after low-key surprise. For starters, the sun's out (as if that vino really had summoned spring). We head on a tour of the botteghe storiche, a network of about 50 well-preserved historic shops, many of which have been run by the same families for more than a century, in some cases two (tours £12; visitgenoa.it). Our charismatic guide, Michela Ceccarini, describes Genoa as a 'city of the understated', and these small boutiques encapsulate that idea. We visit sweet shops, a pharmacy, a fabric maker, a tripery and a stationery store — in nearly every one, the chatty owners are on the shop floor, but one spot really stands out. On the face of it, Pescetto is a clothes shop specialising in silk and wool products, but the dedicated vintage area upstairs is more like a museum. There's a prewar woollen swimsuit, Scottish kilts from the 1960s and 1970s (popular among Italian teens at the time) and a vicuna fleece that has a €1,900 price tag on from a couple of decades ago; fourth-generation owner Francesca says it would be impossible to put a figure on it now. It's a fashion kid's haven.
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Our final stop is the Museo di Sant'Agostino, an art and archaeology museum in a former monastery. Most of the exhibition space is closed for renovation until 2026 but we enjoy the tour of the storage rooms filled with tombstones, sculptures, altarpieces and frescoes from across nearly a millennium of Genoese history (£7; museidigenova.it). And in a neighbouring church, where much of the medieval collection is on display, I spy two Doria headstones from very different eras only a century apart. One is Pagano, depicted as a crusading warrior in 1360; the other Lazzaro, a serious merchant from 1486. It makes you think: what would the typical Genoese hero look like today? Modest and warm-hearted, I'd wager, steering you through the dark with an iPhone.
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Huw Oliver was a guest of the Palazzo Durazzo Suites (palazzodurazzo.com), which has B&B doubles from £310, and the Genoa Chamber of Commerce (ge.camcom.gov.it). Fly or take the train to Genoa
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