Genoa's atmospheric
Old Town
spreads outwards from the port in a
confusion of tiny alleyways (
caruggi
), bordered by
Via Gramsci
along the waterfront and by
Via
Balbi and
Via Garibaldi
to the north. The caruggi are lined
with high buildings, usually six or
seven storeys, set very close
together. Tiny grocers, textile
workshops and bakeries jostle for
position with boutiques, design
outlets and goldsmiths amidst a
flurry of shouts, smells and scrawny
cats. Not for nothing is Genoa the
only European city to be mentioned
in the
Arabian Nights.
The cramped layout of the area
reflects its medieval politics.
Around the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, the city's principal
families - Doria, Spinola, Grimaldi
and Fieschi - marked out certain
streets and squares as their
territory, even extending their
domains to include churches: to pray
in someone else's chapel was to risk
being stabbed in the back. New
buildings on each family's patch had
to be slotted in wherever they
could, resulting in a maze of
crooked alleyways that was the
battleground of dynastic feuds which
lasted well into the eighteenth
century. Genoa has, however,
remained relatively free of fire,
not least because each building's
kitchens were invariably placed on
the topmost storey.
