Local Flavor: where to eat and drink in Genoa

14.10.2024 - 22:06 / lonelyplanet.com

Oct 11, 2024 • 9 min read

When I was writing my first book, I felt an insatiable urge to finish it some place where I could look out at the sea, a place I didn’t know well enough to distract myself with nostalgia and surprise visits with old friends.

When I picked Genoa I only knew that it was far enough from my house in Rome to feel like a holiday and new enough to make procrastinating a little more difficult. 

What I didn’t know was just how deeply I would come to appreciate the many faces of a city that is undoubtedly one of the most captivating on the Mediterranean. Genoa is a fiercely independent place, where the heritage of a powerful maritime republic extends through culture, architecture and – of course – food. The cuisine of Genoa is a story that always reflects this relationship to the sea.

Like everything in this city, every dish has a story. 

I have a particular weakness for the medieval carruggi (alleyways)in the Centro Storico (Old City) that wind through the streets rising from the port. The more-modern neighborhoods (by Italian measures) that extend up past the Strada Nuova and along the via XX Settembre are also well worth strolling (and climbing). All those stairs mean there’s always another street to discover, one with its own little legends hiding just around the corner. 

Genoa is a city built for the insatiably curious. I wound up finishing that first book – and even writing a few after that. Whenever I need to be inspired to finish, I know exactly where to come. 

Although I’ve lived in Italy for more than a decade, I still haven’t quite adopted the habit of a taking sweet pastry with my morning coffee. (It’s the New Yorker in me, I suppose: we’ve all been raised on a diet of bagels and bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwiches from our corner delis.) Yet in Genoa, the savory breakfast is a time-honored tradition – and nothing hits quite like a big hunk of salty, perfectly pockmarked focaccia with your piping-hot cappuccino. One of the staples of the Genovese culinary canon, focaccia is known as fugassa in the local dialect, and it’s very common to dunk it into your morning brew as you watch the world wake up. 

You’ll find focaccia in the mornings just about anywhere in the city. My favorite spot is the medieval quarter’s Pasticceria Liquoreria Marescotti, a century-old spot with gilded walls full of tinctures, liquors and curiosities; it’s a place that never fails to get my creative juices flowing. Of course, excellent coffee and a steady procession of local personalities also help. By 9am, the rush has ended, and you’ve got a front-row seat to that undeniable swag that anyone from Genoa seems to effortlessly exude. Seriously, even the dogs here are cool.  

Since coffee is a basic right in Genoa,