Genova

Luigi Speranza

It is to be feared that the greater number of English people who go to Genoa in order to learn something of the city and its inhabitants fail in completely achieving their object.

It is not enough to visit her streets, churches and palaces in succession with guide-book — however trustworthy — in hand.

The stranger may indeed succeed in this way in becoming familiar with the aspect of her public buildings and thoroughfares, and may learn much about the Genoese school of painting, and of the artists who worked in Genoa, but the everyday life of the populace will escape him.

To come in contact with that—to see the Genoese and to know them, to realise their character, and the things which make up the sum of their existence, you must climb up the stairways which do duty for streets, or go down the maze of side alleys near the Piazzo di Sarzana behind the old wall, streets so narrow that you may touch the houses on both sides as you pass, and across which stretches row after row of snow-white linen so that the view of the sky is almost shut out.

In the dingy shops you will see macaroni, mousetraps and "Madonnas" exhibited for sale behind the same dim sheet of glass.

Over the miserable little doorways you will see lordly coats of arms cut in black marble, and squatting on the doorsteps you will find such of the adult population as inhabit the ground floor, while those who live up the dark and broken stairs lean out among the washing to gape and chatter.

The roadway is given up to innumerable halfdressed children, and a great variety of remarkably large and well-fed cats, while pervading all is the odour of things of the sea mixed with that of incense and eatables.

These are things which the reader must be left to discover for himself.

The present book is confined to an endeavour to sketch the history of Genoa as succinctly as possible, and to describe some of the principal buildings, and the events which are connected with them.

The bibliography of Genoa has been published in a volume by itself, and readers who desire to extend their studies beyond the list which is appended cannot do better than consult Manno's "Bibliografia di Genova."

In conclusion I wish to take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to Cav. Angelo Boscassi, Curator of the Palazzo Bianco, for his courtesy in allowing me to take up so much of his time, and to Mr William Heywood, whose kindly advice and criticism have been of the utmost assistance in the preparation of this volume.