Walk from Piazza Fontane Marose to piazza Acquaverde

The main theme of this itinerary are the noble palaces dating back to the 16th and 17th Centuries. Piazza Fontane Marose shows you into the monumental Via Garibaldi, connected by Via Cairoli to Largo della Zecca and Piazza della Nunziata, at the end of which you can see the long straight stretch of Via Balbi.

Piazza delle Fontane Marose

Probably the name comes from to an ancient spring, in fact during the Middle Ages this place was indicated as “fons marosus”. The opening in 1864-70 of the adjacent via Interiano inserted the square in the street system of the new town.

Via Garibaldi

When it was created in 1550, the “Strada Nuova dei Palazzi”, it was just a residential road, without any outer access, wanted by some noble Genoese families. Open to the traffic at the end of the 18th Century, during the next two centuries the noble families left these residences to civic institutions, banks, antique dealers and elegant private circles, which guaranteed the preservation of this architectural and artistic patrimony, now a pedestrian area.

Town Hall

The palace, already known with the name of Doria Tursi, since 1848 has been the prestigious seat of Genoa Municipality.
The façade three times bigger that the other palaces of the road.

Palazzo Rosso Gallery

The Palace was built by the family Brignole-Sale, who reach the height of its power during the half of the 17th Century. It was built in six years, with two Piano Nobile planned to be divided into two hereditary axes; the name of the palace comes from the colour of the decorations of the façade. The interiors give further fascination to the works collected in the museum.

Palazzo Bianco Gallery

The Palace, built by Nicolò Grimaldi, became afterwards a residence of the family Brignole-Sale. Also here you can admire lots of valuable works.

S. Siro

It was the first cathedral in Genoa, after the building of san Lorenzo in the 11th Century it was given to theBenedictines who rebuilt it in Romanesque style.

Largo della Zecca

It takes its name from the building destroyed in 1927 in order to open the new Galleria Garibaldi. The station on the plain of the Righi cable railway, the classic panoramic route with several stops at various levels of the hill, is located on the right hand side of Palazzo Rostan Raggio. The magnificent façade of the Albergo dei Poveri (Poors’ Hostel) dominates the straight stretch of Via Brignole De Ferrari. The building of this imposing complex, testimony of an age in which also charity was a self-celebration occasion, took about 40 years; nowadays it is a university seat. In Via Lomellini, which goes down from Largo della Zecca towards Piazza Fossatello, the Church of San Filippo Neri, added to a monastery founded in 1674 and nowadays a school. A little bit further, on the other side of the road, Giuseppe Mazzini’s native home, housing the Risorgimento Museum.

Piazza della Nunziata

This square took its name from its most important monument, the Church of Santissima Annunziata del Vastato.

Via Balbi

Its opening followed after few decades the one of Strada Nuova (Via Garibaldi), for the will of the Balbi Family, who owned all the residences overlooking the street. One of them, Palazzo Balbi Senarega, is nowadays seat of the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy, while the ex church of Santi Gerolamo and Francesco Saverio houses the University Biblioteque.

Royal Palace

It was built by the Balbi family between 1643 and 1655 and starting 1824 it was the Genoese Residence of the Italian Royal Family, the Savoia. Through the left staircase you enter the Piano Nobile which houses the Royal Palace Museum, with frescoes from the 17th Century, furniture from 18th and 19th Centuries as well as other masterpieces.