Liguria

The Ligures, an ancient people of the north-west, held this coast before Rome absorbed it in the 2nd century BC; Albingaunum, today's Albenga, and Luna, near the Tuscan border, were its Roman towns. After the empire's fall the coast passed to Byzantines and Lombards and suffered Saracen raids, and in the 11th and 12th centuries Genoa emerged as a self-governing commune trading across the Mediterranean.

The Republic of Genoa became one of the great maritime powers. Its fleets fought in the Crusades, it held trading colonies in the Aegean and on the Black Sea, it crushed Pisa at Meloria in 1284 and fought Venice for a century. Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa around 1451. In 1528 the admiral Andrea Doria allied the republic with Spain, and Genoese bankers, working through institutions such as the Bank of Saint George, financed the Spanish crown for decades — the wealth behind the palaces of the Strade Nuove.

Napoleon ended the republic in 1797, turning it into the Ligurian Republic and then annexing it to France, and in 1815 the Congress of Vienna handed Liguria to the Kingdom of Sardinia. Genoa gave the Risorgimento Giuseppe Mazzini, and Garibaldi's Thousand sailed from Quarto in 1860. The port and shipyards made Genoa part of the industrial triangle with Milan and Turin, the Riviera became a winter resort for British and Russian visitors, and in 2018 the collapse of the Morandi motorway bridge in Genoa killed 43 people; its replacement opened in 2020.

Ligurians have a reputation within Italy for reserve and careful spending, and the Genoese for the mugugno, a habitual grumble. Genoese — zeneize — is still spoken by older people and sung in the city's songwriting tradition, which produced Fabrizio De André and a generation of cantautori. The region looks to the sea: many families have a sailor, fisherman or shipyard worker in their past, and the Genoese long-distance trade left words and tastes all over the Mediterranean; the word "jeans" is usually traced to the sturdy cloth shipped from Genoa.

The calendar mixes religion and the sea. Camogli holds a huge fish-fry for its patron saint in May, Recco celebrates its Madonna with competing fireworks, and many villages bless the boats or process with great crucifixes carried by confraternities. Sanremo's Festival della Canzone Italiana, held since 1951 and now usually in February, is a national television event watched by millions and often the route to Italy's Eurovision entry.

Crafts include slate from the Fontanabuona valley, lace at Rapallo, silver filigree at Campo Ligure and ceramics at Albisola, while dry-stone terracing — thousands of kilometres of walls built over centuries to farm vines and olives on the cliffs — is the region's most visible collective work.

Liguria has about 1.5 million people, more than a third of them in Genoa, a city of about 560,000 that stretches for kilometres along the shore and up steep valleys connected by lifts and funiculars. La Spezia, Savona and Sanremo are the other main towns. The region has the oldest population in Italy, with a high share of retirees, and inland villages have emptied as families moved to the coast.

The economy rests on the ports — Genoa is one of Italy's busiest, with container terminals, ferries and cruise ships — on shipbuilding and the naval base at La Spezia, on engineering and on tourism along both Rivieras. The western Riviera around Sanremo grows cut flowers and basil under glass, and Taggiasca olives and small vineyards occupy the hill terraces.

Daily life follows the coast's rhythm: focaccia dipped in cappuccino for breakfast in Genoa, a crowded summer beach season from June to September, and quieter winters. Current issues include the overcrowding of the Cinque Terre in high season, the upkeep of abandoned terraces that protect slopes from landslides, flood defence in Genoa, and the long disruption of road links since 2018.

Ligurian cooking is built on herbs, olive oil and vegetables rather than meat. Pesto alla genovese pounds basil with pine nuts, garlic, Parmigiano, pecorino and oil, and is served with trofie, short twisted pasta, or trenette, a flat ribbon pasta, often with potato and green beans. Pansoti are herb-filled ravioli in a walnut sauce, and torta pasqualina is a savoury Easter pie of chard, ricotta and whole eggs.

Baked goods are central. Focaccia genovese is a flat, oily, salted bread eaten at any hour; focaccia di Recco is a thin, crisp sheet filled with soft cheese; farinata is a chickpea-flour pancake baked in wide copper pans. Cima alla genovese is stuffed cold veal breast, cappon magro an elaborate fish and vegetable salad, and stockfish, salted cod and anchovies from Monterosso reflect the seafaring past. Pandolce is Genoa's dense Christmas cake with raisins and candied fruit.

The wines are mostly white: Vermentino and Pigato from the western Riviera, Cinque Terre whites from the terraces, and Sciacchetrà, a sweet wine from dried grapes. Rossese di Dolceacqua is the region's best-known red, and Taggiasca olives and their oil are prized across Italy.

Genoa has one of Europe's largest medieval old towns: the striped cathedral of San Lorenzo, Palazzo Ducale, the caruggi around Piazza San Matteo, and the Strade Nuove, where Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Tursi line Via Garibaldi. The Porto Antico, remodelled by Renzo Piano, holds the Aquarium, and the Lanterna lighthouse, the monumental cemetery of Staglieno and the fishing hamlet of Boccadasse lie further out.

East of Genoa, the Riviera di Levante runs through Camogli and the Portofino promontory, where footpaths lead to the abbey of San Fruttuoso in its cove and to Portofino's harbour, then on to Santa Margherita Ligure, Rapallo and Sestri Levante. The Cinque Terre — Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore — are joined by the Sentiero Azzurro and higher trails through the vineyards, and form a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Portovenere and its islands. Lerici and the Gulf of Poets, where Shelley and Byron stayed, close the coast near La Spezia.

West of Genoa, the Riviera di Ponente passes Finale Ligure's rock-climbing crags, the Toirano caves and Albenga's medieval towers. Sanremo has its casino, Russian church and flower market; inland are the stone bridge of Dolceacqua and the earthquake-ruined village of Bussana Vecchia, and near the French border the Hanbury botanical gardens and the prehistoric caves of the Balzi Rossi.