The story of this place
Genoa, 'La Superba,' was one of the great medieval maritime republics, its ships and bankers dominating Mediterranean trade and rivalling Venice for centuries. Its most famous son, Christopher Columbus, was born here around 1451, the son of a wool weaver; a modest stone house near the Porta Soprana, rebuilt in the 18th century on the medieval foundations, is preserved as his boyhood home. From Genoa's harbour, generations of sailors, merchants, and later emigrants set out across the world—millions of Italians departed from here for the Americas in the 19th and 20th centuries. The old port, redesigned by Genoese architect Renzo Piano for 1992's Columbus quincentenary, blends medieval palaces, a lighthouse, and a modern aquarium at the heart of a UNESCO-listed old town.