A Tour of the Forts Surrounding Genoa - Part 3

Having rested and enjoyed the view for a while, you leave the Forte del Diamante behind and make your way down the hill along a path which, as you can clearly see in the picture above, follows a zigzag route down the mountainside.

Your destination now is the Forte del Fratello Minore (in English: Little Brother Fort). As you come to the end of the zigzag stretch down from Forte del Diamante, you come to another fork in the road.

You take the path on the right, heading uphill, through the bushes as you can see in the picture. At the top of the hill you come to a relatively flat area. Here there was once also a Big Brother Fort (Forte del Fratello Maggiore), and you actually walk right over its ruins, without even noticing it if you're not careful. You'll see there are traces of brick walls at ground level, but nothing sticking up anymore. From here you get a good view of the Forte del Fratello Minore.

As you can see, the path from here is quite clear. Unfortunately, when you get there, you find the actual fort, just like the Forte del Diamante, is closed, and you can only look at it from the outside. However, there are plenty of interesting corners and things to explore around the outer walls.

As it is, what was once the entrance to this place now looks like this:

You leave this fort the way you came, but you'll notice on your way back that the path splits into two. Instead of heading back up towards the ruins of the Forte del Fratello Maggiore, you now stay on the right and head in the direction of the  city. This part of the walk is mostly in the open and in spring you'll find lots of wild flowers adding their color to the mountainside. Even in late summer, splashes of color are not as uncommon as you would expect, especially after the August heat.

The path now follows the top of the ridge, heading to the next fort in the tour, Forte Puin. You can see both the path and the fort here:

Forte Puin was built between 1815 and 1831, in the place of a previous fort dating back to 1742. It has been private property since 1963 and is reported to have been restored more than once in that time. The name Puin is said to come from "du Puin" in the local dialect, which in Italian would be "del Padrino", and in English "of the Godfather" - although that's as far as the local tourist brochure goes in the explanation, and you are left to figure out for yourself why it should be called that.

Having walked around to the front of the fort, you can walk right up to the gate and have a look in, and then head down the very grand stairway that leads away from the entrance towards the rest of the path. You then come to a point where the path splits again. This is marked by a large brick and rock thing in the middle, a larger, pointy part sitting on top of the smaller part - I suppose it was meant to be a signpost of some sort at some time, but there's nothing written on it. From here you'll see a fort surrounded by antennas up ahead, the fort eventually hiding behind the hill and leaving a lone antenna as a warning.

You can go up there to explore if you wish, but if instead you turn down to your left, the path takes you down a steep hill through what the signs advertise as the "valley of butterflies". There are truly millions of them. Obviously if you go in Spring there will be even more. The overall effect is quite magical the first time you walk through there, and along the way there are signs telling you what types of butterflies there are in the area so you know what to be on the lookout for.

This part of the walk comes to an end very quickly, and you find yourself, all of a sudden, next to a trattoria, with a barking dog down on your right and, if you're lucky, you may even get the chance to meet this horse who apparently belongs to the lady from the trattoria. The two of them kindly accepted to pose for a photo together.

You now come back to the path you first followed, and retrace your steps all the way back to the Funicolare station in Righi past the rescue dog training center and the archery club.

Overall this whole walk will only take you 3 or 4 hours, depending on how fast you walk and on how long you stop along the way to explore your surroundings. I think that makes it an even better walk because it doesn't take the entire day away from you and you get to see so much in that short amount of time.

You can also get a small pocket guide to a number of different walks among the forts (there are many others) from the local tourist office in via Garibaldi for about 50 cents. If you do happen to travel to Genoa sometime, take the morning to go on this walk, you won't regret it!

A Tour of the Forts Surrounding Genoa - Part 1

Sometimes, with the help of the weather, the holiday vibe doesn't wait for you to be on holiday to try and take a hold of you. Fortunately, the weekend is always just around the corner. One of my absolute favorite one-day escapes is the tour of the forts surrounding Genoa in the hills behind the city.

One such area is the Parco delle Mura, a nature reserve on the upper edge of the city. From the city center it only takes a few minutes to get there. By car it takes about 5 minutes, up winding, sometimes incredibly steep roads, and once you arrive there is always plenty of parking. On foot, you can climb the hill in about 20 minutes, maybe half an hour if you wanted to take it easy.

The best way to get there, especially if you are exploring the city for the first time, is on the Zecca-Righi Funicolare. Now Largo Zecca, the lowest station on the line, is easy to miss because it is tucked away in a corner. The best way to make sure you find it is if you go towards Largo Zecca from Piazza della Nunziata. At the traffic light, on your left hand side, behind another little road going up the hill and one disappearing around the corner next to it. In that hidden corner you will see the little sign for the station.

If you are claustrophobic, this is perhaps not the best alternative, but it is really worth the ride. These tiny two carriages take you up the hill through tunnels and in between houses and gardens. Some of the stations are on such a slope that the platforms are entirely made up of stairs. It takes about 10 minutes to reach the top, you get an "inside" view of parts of the city you would not see otherwise, and the whole thing only costs you 1.50 euro for a standard AMT bus ticket.

When you reach the Righi station, at the top of the hill, don't leave the station without stopping for a second on the terraces on the roof of the station to look out over the city and see how far you've come.

As you exit the station, you will see two roads on your left hand side. One going uphill and the other going down. Take the one going down, and immediately turn on to the path leading through the trees next to the tennis court. This path will lead you all the way to the beginning of your actual walk, without having to walk in the middle of the road and dodge the cars.

This path is quite interesting itself, it takes you first past the local archery club, and later, after keeping to the right where you come to a fork in the road (seen in the picture above), past another club that trains rescue dogs. Finally, while skirting the old city walls, on the outside, you will spot the first of the forts you will visit during the day. This one is called Forte Sperone, and as you come to the end of this first path, you will keep Forte Sperone to your left and continue up the road to your right.

This road soon turns to a dusty mountain path, which follows a large pipeline. It's ancestor, an ancient aqueduct, runs along a similar route, but further down in the valley. You will find plenty of people out here, most running or riding their mountain bike, a few walking their dogs. Along this road, you come to a fork: on the left you will find a trattoria, and a route that goes more directly up to the forts surrounding the city. I like to take the other route on the right. It is a bit longer, and later on it is even a bit tougher, but I think it gives you a better idea of the countryside in Liguria (in case you're wondering, that's the name of this region of Italy).

An hour after leaving Largo Zecca, if you look back towards the city this is what you'll see:

Not long after that, as the number of trees surrounding the path gradually increases, you come across something really surprising: the ancestor of the modern ice machine. The system worked like this: you dig a deep hole in the ground out in a cool, shady area of the mountain, pack compressed snow inside it during the colder months of the year (which then turned to ice), insulate the whole lot with straw and dry leaves, and sell it down in the city, carrying it down block by block on the back of a mule.

The neviera, as it is called in Italian, originally looked something like this:

What you see today, of course, makes you feel a bit more like Indiana Jones. There is no covering of any kind and the stone walls of the inside of the hole are just recognizable through the creepers and other plants growing in and around them. But if you look closely you can even see the small stairway that goes down one side to the bottom of the pit.

Back on the path, after about ten minutes you come to the end of the first part of the walk, just above a place called Trensasco. You will notice an actual road where you thought you were quite isolated from civilization, and even a small bar just a little way ahead.

(To be continued...)