Some historical facts about my city:

The city is very old: the most ancient foundings get back to the sixth century B.C. Destroyed by Magone, brother of Hannibal, it was rebuilt by the Romans. It stayed under the Roman Empire until it dissolved and then passed to Byzantium. Conquered by the Longobards, it became then part of the Sacred Roman Empire of Charlemagne. In 950 it became a free city and enjoyed a time of great development. It took part to the Crusades and became one of the “Repubbliche Marinare”, always fighting against Pisa and Venice: during the Middle Age was one of the most important state in the western world, conquering commercial colonies in the Mediterranean. After the discovery of America, made by its citizen Cristofer Columbus, it gradually lost importance, and from commercial became a financial city, although many fine buildings were built in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. After the Napoleonic wars it was given to the Kingdom of the Savoia, which in the nineteenth century conquered the rest of Italy and in 1860 became the Kingdom of Italy, which after the Second World War became the Italian Republic.

Genoa is the city of Cristoforus Columbus, Nicolò Paganini and Giuseppe Mazzini .

Genoa is the greatest port of Italy and one of the greatest of the Mediterranean Sea.  It has about 700.000  inhabitants and is the capital of the “Regione Liguria”.  The old city has a Medieval plan with narrow winding streets called “caruggi” with many churches and historical palaces; one wonderful Renaissance street with wonderful palaces called “Via Nuova”; two Medieval gates and many fine Villas in the suburbs. But the most famous monument and the simbol of the city is the “Lanterna”, the lighthouse.

According to historians, in fact, the Lanterna is the oldest lighthouse still working: on the basis of accounts that have become nearly legends, the monument dates back to 1128, but its present structure is due to a later project signed in 1507. The tower is 117 metres high and illuminates a radius of 27 nautical miles. Apart from being a fascinating sight and a point of reference for "Genoese history", the Lanterna is also an inexhaustable source of legends and fantastic stories. The bloodiest of which tells that its first architect was thrown down the top of the tower by command of the town Lords who wanted to prevent him from eventually building any other lighthouse of similar importance and prestige. According to another story, we do not know how reliable, staring at the cyclicle light of the Lanterna when the hour strikes and the bells are tolling brings luck. Should the light be switched off or interrupted for any reason, it would be a sign of terrible disgrace for the whole city.