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Genoa, the Place

spianata urbana

[When people think of Italy,] [m]ost people think of Rome, think of Florence, think of Venice, but as far as I'm concerned they are amusement parks for tourists. Genoa has remained the real thing.Xavier Salomon, Roman-born, former curator of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

(video: https://www.metmuseum.org/connections/genoa)

Genoa is the capital of Liguria, a region running from the border with France in the west to Tuscany in the east.

liguria map cities

Sixth largest city in Italy with a population of approximately 600,000
An active port; headquarters of Costa Crociere
Largest intact medieval quarter in Europe
Named a UNESCO World heritage Site in 2006 with the ‘Palazzi dei Rolli’
Home of pesto, foccaccia, and farinata

Stories and Legends

Janus or Giano Bifroonte, Roman god with two faces — Janus bifrons or Giano bifronte, the dual-faced Roman god of ports and doorways, beginnings and endings, gives his name to the month January and was adopted as a symbol of Genoa in the Middle Ages.

Jeans — Jeans are, by many accounts, originally from Genoa (Genes in French). A heavy twilled fabric used for work clothes, there are accounts of the fabric from Genoa spreading through North Europe in the 17th century.

Marco Polo map — Marco Polo dictated the memoirs of his travels in Asia while imprisoned (as a suspected spy for Venice) in Genoa's Palazzo San Giorgio at the end of the 13th century.