In a similar vein to my photos of Rapallo, I’m going to admit to myself now that I’m getting behind with this blog and so I’ll have to do another job lot of photos to excite and delight my two loyal blog readers.
I rather liked Genoa, the old town is still full of small streets and interesting corners, there’s real evidence in the buildings at how powerful Genoa once was. There are few chain stores, just a lot of smaller shops which do add considerably to the atmosphere. That also makes for lots of small cafes, bars and restaurants, with supermarkets struggling to fit themselves around buildings.
The city does look like it needs a lot of investment, the marina area was improved a couple of decades ago, but there’s a lot of money still needed. I saw one “tourists go home” sign along the lines of those in Barcelona and numerous other cities, but I’m not sure Genoa can easily afford that little plan. I’m sure that Airbnb and the like are damaging, I hope they’re much more heavily regulated and taxed in the future.
It’s definitely a vibrant, and even grimy, city, but it does have some considerable charm because it feels authentic. It’s not as touristy as many other Italian locations and it was also a bit dented by air raids during the Second World War, but it’s still quirky and real.
One thing that I hear in the UK is something like “you don’t hear English any more”, which I’m not sure is entirely true given that just about everyone speaks it. Anyway, I won’t get political…. But, in many cities, English is the language I hear the most because of the number of tourists. That might be convenient for me, but it doesn’t really lead to an authentic charm when overdone. In Genoa, I rarely heard anything other than Italian, but the locals (or the ones I encountered in the hospitality industry) spoke perfect English and were all welcoming.
It’s a city that I would return to, I think it’s likely a harder city to penetrate and fully understand than many others, but I like places like that. I didn’t have time to visit the museums or the largest aquarium in Europe, but I’ll work my way around those if I come back. Anyway, now a heap of photos….
NB, several people thought that the figurehead looked like Richard, but I don’t comment on such things.
