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GENOA
142km
(88 miles) SW of Milan, 501km (311
miles) NW of Rome, 193km (120
miles) NE of Nice.
A city that exists on its contrasts, Genoa has always been a
port city yet it also stretches
right up to the hills. The sea,
and matters connected with the
sea, has always been of the main
importance to the city. Hence it
was once a vital maritime centre
for the Roman Empire and
Christopher Columbus, a man of the
sea himself, spent his boyhood
here, a fact that must have had a
great influence on his future
career connected with the sea.
During the days of the Renaissance
it was one of the largest and
richest cities of Europe, yet
Genoa still is a mix of the old
and the new, of sophistication and
squalor.
The narrow lanes and damp
alleyways of Genoa's portside old
town, where treasure-filled
palaces and fine marble churches
stand next to dilapidated
tenements, make it easy for the
tourist to picture the days of
old, the days of glory. In fact,
life within the old medieval walls
seems frozen in time. The new
Genoa, the contemporary city that
stretches for miles along the
coast and climbs the hills, is a
city of international business,
peaceful parks, and windswept
belvederes from which you can
enjoy views over this colorful
metropolis and the sea that gives
it its identity.
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