A walk around Genoa and Liguria
The revitalised Genoa is capital of Italy’s Liguria region. The region of Liguria itself curves round the north-western coastline, the narrow region joining Tuscany in the east and France and Monte Carlo to the west. ‘This is the most winding, incoherent of cities, the most entangled topographical ravel in the world,’ according to writer Henry James.
It’s an ancient city. Excavated cemeteries in the town point to Greek occupation from around the sixth century BC, but the natural harbour here was probably in use far earlier. An important trading base for skins, honey and wood, the power of Genoa was to grow until the early Middle Ages, and by the thirteenth century the city was a major seapower. The Genoese were players in the Crusades and from then on were some of the most traders around the Mediterranean and the ports of north Africa, Greece and Turkey. And seafaring nations don’t just bring home goods and money, of course, they bring home ideas, new ways of doing things. Genoa’s builders were using the Arab pointed arch a full century before the rest of Italy. And Genoa has an eclectic cuisine that draws far more on the southern Mediterranean than you would expect, given its northerly position.
Other Italians mock the Ligurians and Genovese for meanness. It’s unfair, but this is a kitchen where nothing is wasted, so you will encounter offal-based dishes. The keynote ingredient is pesto however, the delicious paste of basil, garlic, pine nuts and parmesan (or pecorino), mashed in olive oil. Seafood is predictably to the fore in this bustling port: anchovies, mussels, octopus, clams and squid, and pastas served in seafood sauces. Salt cod (baccala) is popular, and local dishes include cuttlefish stew (burrida di seppie) and vinegar-marinaded fish (in carpione). Frugality is again a theme here, the Genoese have become experts at preserving excess fish stocks. Genoa has its grand buildings too. There is a fine Duomo in the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo.
It also has one of the oldest universities, founded in 1481 (in medieval Italy, learning tended to accompany trade), and the oldest football club in Italy. That’s football as in soccer (or calcio to give it the Italian name), though Genoa are actually (and delightfully) named Genoa Football and Cricket Club, being set up by expat Englishmen.
The city has its dark side too. The 2001 G8 summit in the town was overshadowed by riots and a brutal over-reaction by the local police, who shot one man dead and beat and arrested numerous protestors. An inglorious approach saw carabinieri raiding union buildings and media centres during the protests. And never forget this was the city that refused to bankroll local boy Christopher Columbus … a woeful lack of foresight that saw Genoa head into centuries of decline.
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