Private tour to Genoa – the capital of northwest Italy’s Liguria from Savona

The Doge's Palace is a historical building in Genoa, northern Italy. Once the home of the Doges of Genoa, it is now a museum and a centre for cultural events and arts exhibitions.

Located on the Gulf of Genoa in the Ligurian Sea, Genoa has historically been one of the most important ports on the Mediterranean: it is currently the busiest in Italy and in the Mediterranean Sea and twelfth-busiest in the European Union. Genoa has been nicknamed la Superba ("the proud one") due to its glorious past and impressive landmarks. Part of the old town of Genoa was inscribed on the World Heritage List (UNESCO) in 2006 as Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli. The city's rich cultural history in art, music and cuisine allowed it to become the 2004 European Capital of Culture. It is the birthplace of Guglielmo Embriaco, Christopher Columbus, Andrea Doria, Niccolò Paganini, Giuseppe Mazzini, Renzo Piano and Grimaldo Canella, founder of the House of Grimaldi, among others.

Piazza De Ferrari is the main square of Genoa. Situated in the heart of the city between the historical and the modern center, Piazza De Ferrari is renowned for its fountain, which was restored in recent years along with a major restyling of the square. Today next to Piazza De Ferrari are numerous office buildings, headquarters of banks, insurances and other private companies, making of this district the financial and business centre of Genoa, so that the Genoese popularly refers to it as the "City" of Genoa. At the end of the 19th century, Genoa was the main financial centre of Italy along with Milan, and Piazza De Ferrari was the place where many institutions were established, like the stock exchange, the Credito Italiano, the branch offices of the Bank of Italy, founded in 1893.

Encompassing the three areas of the city – the castrum that developed on the hill of Castello, the civitas, which rose up around the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, and the burgus, a commercial area around the monastery of San Siro – Genoa's new city walls were built in the 12th century to defend the independence of the Republic against the expansionist ambitions of Emperor Barbarossa, after whom they are named. The vast majority of the city's inhabitants participated, both materially and financially, in the work required, which was thus completed in record time between 1155 and 1159 ,while 1161 saw the completion of three of the two-towered gates: Porta Soprana, Porta Aurea and Porta di Santa Fede. Porta Soprana served as the entrance to the city for those arriving from the east, looking over the plane of Sant'Andrea, which took its name from a monastery demolished in the 19th century to create Via Dante and the building that currently houses the Banca d'Italia. All that survives of the monastery today is the splendid Romanesque cloister. Barely a stone's throw away is the house-museum of Christopher Columbus, an 18th-century reconstruction of the original building in which the man who discovered the Americas lived in his youth, later destroyed during the French bombings of 1684. Right beside Columbus's home stands the 12th-century cloister of the ancient monastery of Sant'Andrea.

Genoa's zebra-striped Gothic–Romanesque cathedral owes its continued existence to the poor quality of a British WWII bomb that failed to ignite here in 1941; it still sits on the right side of the nave like an innocuous museum piece. The cathedral, fronted by three arched portals, twisting columns and crouching lions, was first consecrated in 1118. The two bell towers and cupola were added later in the 16th century. Inside, above the central doorway, there's a great lunette with a painting of the Last Judgment, the work of an anonymous Byzantine painter of the early 14th century. In the sacristy, the Museo del Tesoro preserves various dubious holy relics, including the medieval Sacro Catino, a glass vessel once thought to be the Holy Grail. Other artefacts include the polished quartz platter upon which Salome is said to have received John the Baptist's head, and a fragment of the True Cross.

Castelletto is a residential quarter in Genoa and the Spianata is a raised platform and walkway that offers unparalleled views of the city and harbour. The courtyard and walkway are accessible via a series of steps or an ornate lift that is topped with a large glass panelled building. Once you are at the top, you can look down to the city beneath you. During the daytime see the ships in the harbour and hear the hustle and bustle of the locals, and at night see the city transformed with an advent of lights. The courtyard itself is a great place to relax and is shaded by a variety of trees; there are also several binoculars that allow you to see details of the city close-up.

A UNESCO listed World Heritage Site; the Via Garibaldi is one of the most important streets in Genoa and is famous for its large amount of palaces and fine architecture.

You might expect a street laid out in the 16th and 17th centuries as a setting for palaces of Genoa's richest and most powerful families to be a grand broad avenue, but Via Garibaldi is little more than a lane. It seems even narrower because it is hemmed in on both sides by the grandiose facades of side-by-side palaces. This little street, which lies north of Piazza Ferrari and above the sailors' quarter, is worth walking down even if none of the palaces is open to tour. Its facades present a succession of carved and painted embellishments, frescoes, grand arcades and loggias, balconies, courtyards, and entrances crowned by crests of noble families whose homes these were. So outstanding is this assemblage that it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can tour three of these -- Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco, and Palazzo Tursi - on a single ticket to see the interiors and their superb art collections.