Genoa travel guide, in your ear
The birthplace of Christopher Columbus, a labyrinthine medieval port of narrow caruggi alleyways, Renaissance palaces, pesto, focaccia, and maritime glory.
- 18 narrated stops
- ~54 minutes of stories
- 6 languages
- Offline ready
What is the Gingerguide Genoa tour?
It is a self-guided audio walking tour of Genoa, Italy, inside the Gingerguide travel guide app. The tour maps 18 sights and tells the story of each one in a two to three minute narration with a lifelike AI voice. When the story is not enough, ask the built-in AI guide about the place and keep the conversation going. Everything is available in six languages and works fully offline after a one-time download.
About Genoa
Genoa does not try to charm you. From the train it looks like a working port hemmed against the mountains, all cranes and flyovers and steep grey hills. But step into the old town, into the dark canyons of alleys called caruggi, and something extraordinary opens: this gruff harbour city was once one of the richest powers in Europe, and it kept the receipts.
They called it La Superba, the Proud One. For centuries Genoa was a maritime republic to rival Venice, its ships and bankers spread across the Mediterranean, lending to half the kings of Europe. It ran the oldest public bank in the world, and in the 1500s Genoese financiers bankrolled the Spanish empire. All that money went into stone: behind the plain fronts of the old city stand hundreds of palaces, the grandest, the Palazzi dei Rolli, now protected by UNESCO.
The city climbs. Wedged into a sliver of land between the sea and the Apennines, Genoa had nowhere to grow but up, so its old core became one of the densest in Europe, a shadowy maze where you lose the sky. From that maze came fine things: basil-green pesto, oily focaccia, and, the story goes, the blue cloth of Genoa the French called bleu de Gênes, which we now call jeans.
The sights reward finding. On Via Garibaldi, the Rolli palaces hide painted halls and gardens behind plain doors. The striped cathedral of San Lorenzo holds a strange relic: a British naval shell that crashed through the roof in 1941 and never went off. And at the old harbour, redesigned by the Genoese Renzo Piano, sits the largest aquarium in Italy.
Give Genoa the time most people don't. Get lost in the caruggi until you smell frying fish and focaccia, come out onto the harbour as the light goes, and look back at the amphitheatre of houses climbing the hills, lit tier over tier. Genoa rewards the curious and shrugs off everyone else, and once it has you, it does not let go.
One day in Genoa
A simple way to walk the highlights, following the route order in the app. Swap anything; Genoa rewards detours.
What to see in Genoa: all 18 stops
Every place below has its own narrated story in the app, and its own answers when you want more. Walk them in any order; the map shows what is around you.
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Caruggi: The Medieval Alleyways
Genoa's extraordinary medieval labyrinth of narrow alleyways, some barely 80 cm wide, the largest medieval urban centre in Europe, wrapped around the Strade Nuove and Palazzi dei Rolli inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006.
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Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)
The great palace of Genoa's medieval republic, seat of the Doges for centuries, now a major cultural centre hosting world-class exhibitions and events.
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Piazza De Ferrari
Genoa's magnificent main square, a grand Art Nouveau fountain at its centre, flanked by the Carlo Felice opera house, the Stock Exchange, and the Palazzo Ducale.
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Cathedral of San Lorenzo
Genoa's magnificent Romanesque-Gothic cathedral with its striking black and white striped marble facade, and the extraordinary exhibit of an intact British naval shell that failed to explode in WWII.
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Via Garibaldi: Street of the Rich
A UNESCO World Heritage street, the finest Renaissance merchant palaces in the world, built by Genoa's greatest merchant families in the 16th century, now housing major art museums.
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Galata Museo del Mare
The largest maritime museum in the Mediterranean, featuring a full-scale 17th-century Genoese galley, the visitable submarine Nazario Sauro, and the history of Atlantic emigration.
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Acquario di Genova
The largest aquarium in Europe, home to dolphins, sharks, sea turtles, and penguins, built for the 1992 World Expo and now one of Italy's most-visited attractions.
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Portofino
Italy's most glamorous fishing village, a tiny, exquisite harbour ringed by pastel-coloured houses, luxury yachts, and the forested hill of the Castello Brown, 37 kilometres east of Genoa.
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Boccadasse
Genoa's most charming neighbourhood, a tiny fishing cove east of the city centre with pastel-coloured houses stacked above a small pebble beach, beloved gelateria, and harbour boats.
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Staglieno Cemetery
One of the most extraordinary cemeteries in the world, a vast hillside necropolis with monumental sculptures of breathtaking quality, visited by Mark Twain, and the burial place of Oscar Wilde's wife, Constance.
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Nervi & Coastal Promenade
A romantic eastern suburb of Genoa with a 2km cliff-top promenade past Art Nouveau villas and rocky sea views, and the Parchi di Nervi, Genoa's most beautiful public gardens.
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Columbus's Birthplace
The traditional birthplace of Christopher Columbus in the heart of Genoa, a small medieval house near Porta Soprana, where history and legend meet in the alleyways where the world's greatest explorer grew up.
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Piazza Banchi & Mercantile Heart
Genoa's ancient commercial heart, a medieval square where merchants once gathered, flanked by the Loggia dei Mercanti and the church of San Pietro in Banchi, connecting the caruggi to the old port.
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Castelletto Viewpoint
A panoramic hilltop neighbourhood above Genoa with a public lift from Piazza Portello, the best free viewpoint over the city, port, and Ligurian Sea.
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Pesto Genovese & Mercato Orientale
The birthplace of pesto, Genoa invented the world's most famous pasta sauce from DOP Genovese basil, Ligurian olive oil, Parmigiano, pecorino, pine nuts, and garlic, pounded in a marble mortar, best experienced at the Mercato Orientale.
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Via del Campo
The most famous street in the caruggi, immortalised in Fabrizio De André's folk ballad "Via del Campo" (1967), where a simple flower girl became the subject of one of Italy's greatest songs, and the tradition of Genoese cantautori lives on.
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Parco di Villa Durazzo-Pallavicini
A magnificent 19th-century Romantic park at Pegli, 15km west of Genoa, designed as an elaborate theatrical landscape with grottos, fake Gothic ruins, Egyptian temples, lakeside temples, and winding paths through dense vegetation.
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Genoese Cuisine & Focaccia Culture
The essential Genoese food experience, authentic focaccia (flat, olive-oiled, dimpled) baked in wood-fired ovens, farinata (chickpea pancake) from the port area, trofie al pesto, and the extraordinary cappon magro seafood salad.
Three things most visitors miss
Caruggi: The Medieval Alleyways
The narrowest caruggio in Genoa, the Vico del Filo, is just 80 centimetres wide, narrow enough that you can touch both walls by spreading your arms.
Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)
The Genoese Republic lasted 698 years (1099-1797), making it one of the longest-lived republican governments in pre-modern history.
Piazza De Ferrari
The Piazza De Ferrari fountain jets can be individually programmed, on special occasions the water display is choreographed to music, creating a theatrical spectacle visible from the surrounding buildings.
Genoa tour: questions and answers
Do I need a tour guide in Genoa?
Not a human one. Gingerguide covers Genoa with 18 narrated sights, so you get the stories a guide would tell, at your own pace and on your own route. And if a story leaves you with a question, you can ask the built-in AI guide and discuss the place right there, the way you would with a guide.
How many stops does the Genoa audio tour have?
The Genoa guide covers 18 sights. Each one has a researched story of roughly three minutes, about 54 minutes of listening in total. You choose the order and the pace; the tour is self-guided.
Does the Genoa tour work offline?
Yes. You can download Genoa in the app, audio, photos, and offline map tiles included. After the download, the full tour works without an internet connection.
Which languages does the Genoa guide support?
Every Genoa narration is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Turkish, and Chinese. You can switch the language in the app at any time.
Is the Genoa audio guide free?
The Gingerguide app is free to download, and Genoa includes a free preview: you can see all 18 sights on the map at no cost. A premium subscription unlocks the full stories, audio narration, and the offline download.
Hear Genoa tell its own story.
Preview all 18 Genoa stops free in the Gingerguide app.