Thomas Marks

Genoa

It was nicknamed ‘La Superba’, so how, asked Dickens, could one city contain so many ugly priests?

issue 22 April 2017

Some say Genoa takes its name from Janus, the two-faced god of time and doorways. Perhaps. What’s certain is the city has two aspects: the vast industrial port, its docks the bared teeth of the Italian Riviera; and, in the ruched strip of land between the Ligurian Sea and the hills, a bewildering network of alleys, stairways, and irregular little squares.

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