A protected UNESCO site, the old city is literally built like a maze of hundreds of narrow, winding alleys. This seems somewhat absurd now (especially with all the problems this urban structure causes in everyday life), but there was a very good reason behind this insane layout: security.
Most of the residential buildings in this part of the city date back to between the Twelfth and Thirteenth centuries, and this spiderweb-like layout helped the people of the Republic of Genoa defend themselves and their belongings against the continuous threat of attacks coming from the sea.
The scenario played out more or less in the following way:
- Pirates park their big sailing ship right in the middle of the harbour. They all jump into their rowing boats and head towards the land.
- As soon as they hit the ground, they run towards the city, screaming and waving their swords in the air, only nobody's there to fight them.
- Not encountering any resistance, they soon find themselves running and screaming right in the middle of a deserted city, and...
- They're now hopelessly lost.
I realise how ridiculous this sounds, but it does actually work. Even today, if you don't know the city and just head into the first alley you encounter, it will probably take you most of the day to find your way out again. Not to mention the interesting encounters you will make during that time.
The other essential part of this strategy, which I've already mentioned but must point out one more time, is that these are really not streets, rather alleys of various sizes. In many of them, you can reach out and touch both sides at the same time and walking past another person with their shopping, for example, usually requires some skillful sideways walking.
Anyway, the pirates are now well and truly lost, maybe walking in single file through one of these long narrow alleys, when all of a sudden the upstairs windows open, and gallons and gallons of boiling oil and water come raining down on them, and there is nowhere to escape to.
So the pirates go limping back to their ship (once they find their way back) and sail off, as quick as they can, into the sunset.
For more information on the city's maritime history, have a look at the Galata Museum website.
It is worth noticing, at this point, that the old city as we see it today is not quite as it once was, so modern tourists have a better chance of finding their way around.
During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, many merchant families had accumulated considerable wealth and a sort of competition arose, in which each family attempted to build an even more beautiful home than their neighbour's, resulting in some beautiful architecture, most of which, in true Genovese style, is not really visible from the street.
Particularly on the main piazze and streets where everyday commerce took place, these families basically destroyed entire blocks of more "ordinary" apartment buildings so they could build their new mansions where somebody would notice them.
Piazza Campetto is a just one of many examples of this phenomenon, and is well worth a visit, especially if you've made it as far as the cathedral of San Lorenzo, which is only a few hundred metres away.
The other, more recent effect of this building craze was that when they became too expensive to maintain, many of these buildings got left to the city, to be used as schools, hospitals and museums.
The building next door to my apartment building, for example, has a huge marble plaque on the front clearly stating that the wealthy former owner left this building to the city under the condition that it be permanently used as a hospital.
Today, of course, it is the proud home of a bank.
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