Genoa: Literary Tourism

Over the centuries, the city of Genoa has been a privileged place for Italian and foreign poets, storytellers, songwriters, film directors and musicians. Francesco Petrarca calls her “superba d’uomini e mura, [...] signora del mare” (“outstanding in both its men and walls, [...] lady of the sea”); Guy de Maupassant defines it “une des plus belles choses qu’on puisse voir au monde” (“one of the world's most stunning sights”); Eugenio Montale compares it to “un serpente che abbia inghiottito un coniglio senza poterlo digerire” (“a snake that has swallowed a rabbit without being able to digest it”); Giorgio Caproni says “Genova sono io. Sono io che sono fatto di Genova” (“Genoa is me. I am the one who is made of Genoa”). Genoa also attracts women poets such as Anna Maria Ortese, who describes the city’s unreal beauty. The urban characteristics of the city, which are based on the impetuous force of the sea and the alleys of the historic centre, have aroused the authors' attention, attracted above all by the particular geo-conformation that allows vertical development. Reading the texts of a series of authors such as Guido Gozzano, Camillo Sbarbaro, Dino Campana, Eugenio Montale, Giorgio Caproni, Edoardo Sanguineti, Remigio Zena, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Mario Soldati, Giovanni Arpino and, widening the perspective, Paul Valery, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Joseph Conrad, Friedrich Nietzsche, it is possible to trace the places that, evoked by the lines, are still largely visible or, in any case, reconstructable. The city, just for the verticality of which it has been spoken above, is equipped with elevators, one of which leads to a famous viewpoint from which it is possible to observe Genoa, Spianata di Castelletto. “Quando mi sarò deciso / d’andarci, in paradiso / ci andrò con l’ascensore / di Castelletto, nelle ore notturne, / rubando un poco / di tempo al mio riposo” (“When I have decided / to go there, in paradise / I will go there with the elevator / Castelletto, at night, / stealing a little / time to my rest”), as it is written by Giorgio Caproni. Before entering the tunnel that allows people to take the elevator, a plaque affixed to the wall bears the author's words. Due to its verticality, Genoa is a city that has both elevators and funiculars, which writers frequently visit. “Poi all’improvviso i muri si aprono: è come se l’ascensore avesse sfondato i tetti e puntasse direttamente verso il cielo, per un attimo ci si sente sospesi nel vuoto, i cavi della trazione scivolano silenziosamente, il porto e gli edifici fuggono in basso, si ha quasi l’impressione che l’ascensione non si fermerà più, la forza di gravità pare una legge assurda e la città un giocattolo dal quale è un sollievo disabituarsi” (“Then suddenly the walls open: it is as if the elevator had broken through the roofs and pointed directly to the sky, for a moment you feel suspended in the void, the traction cables glide quietly, the port and buildings run down, you almost have the impression that ascension will not stop anymore, the force of gravity seems like an absurd law and the city a toy from which it is a relief to get used to”), says Tabucchi in Il filo dell'orizzonte. Some writers, moreover, were born or lived most of their lives in the city; this is the case of Montale. Born in Corso Dogali, a street to which he also dedicates the homonymous poem, he spent the first part of his life in a house still visible today but inac-cessible to the public because it belongs to a private citizen. Also in this case, however, a plaque commemorates the event: “Il poeta / Eugenio Montale / (1896-1981) / nacque in questa casa / il 12 ottobre 1896” (“The poet / Eugenio Montale / (1896-1981) / was born in this house / on October 12, 1896”). The author graduated from the Vittorio Emanuele Technical Institute: in the latter building, the report of the writer’s votes is displayed in the library. Campana and Sbarbaro, at the beginning of November 1900, gave Genoa the title of the first city in Italian poetry: the place where it is possible to recognise the condition of modern man is in-voked by writers who get lost in the alleys. When Campana enters “in una grotta di porcellana / sorbendo caffè” (“in a cave of porcellana / drinking coffee”), it is in Salita Pollaiuoli, now called Caffè degli Specchi, a literary place also referable to De Signoribus’s poetry and a Risi’s film. The image of Genoa as a literary city grew more and more and certainly exploded in the twentieth century, thanks, for example, to the words of Sanguineti in Genova per me, in which he offers his point of view about the city, providing a “miniabbozzo di un minilacerto di una miniguida” (“sketch of a little fragment of a little guide”), without forgetting other authors such as Calvino, Fortini, Tabucchi, Testa. Thanks to the image that literary writers and widening the perspective musicians and songwriters have given of the city, literary tourism has expanded. Particularly, a project was born at the University of Genoa, in agreement with Genoa’s Municipality, which involves the creation of literary itineraries that, with the help of digital tools, allow the tourist to follow the life and the poems of an author step by step and "live" literature. It is also possible to discover the transformation of some places of the city and their eventual disappearance, such as the Trattoria Carlotta in Sottoripa frequented by Montale or the trampoline in Genoa Quarto from which Esterina, one of the muses of the writer, used to dive, as it is written in Falsetto. Especially about Montale and Caproni, it is possible to create a touristic itinerary that reviews most of the compositions in which the city of Genoa is mentioned, also putting physical signs on the territory that allow to leave a trace of what was in comparison to the present.

In the city of Genoa, there is also the monumental cemetery of Staglieno. Officially opened to the public in 1851, it combines the neoclassical style with North-European naturalistic elements. There are prominent writers such as Anna Maria Ortese, Fernanda Pivano, and Edoardo Sanguineti, as well as historical and political figures such as Giuseppe Mazzini.

The city has also been a meeting point with foreign authors such as Paul Valery, who in 1892 stayed in Genoa, at the Palazzo Montanaro, in Salita San Francesco: during a storm, the writer had a strong crisis that he called “night of Genoa”. In the Cahiers Valery writes: “Nuit effroyable. Passé assis sur mon lit. Orage partout. Ma chambre éblouissante par chaque éclair. Et tout mon sort se jouait dans ma tête. Je suis entre moi et moi.” (“Frightening storm this night. I spent it sitting on my bed. Dazzling with every flash, all my destiny was at stake in my head. Between me and myself I suffered enormously”). The building today has a plaque on the exterior facade in which it is possible to read: “In this house, during the / stormy night / of October 5, 1892 / Paul Valéry / son of a Genoese mother, lived his most dramatic / inner story / that where-goes perpetually / binds him to the name of Genoa / through the illuminating / experience of the / «Nuit de Genes» – «Nuit effroyable... / passèe assis sur mon lit... / et tout mon sort / se jouait dans ma tête...»”.

In recent years, moreover, some cultural associations have organised literary walks for the city of Genoa. In 2020, Alessandro Ferraro published Genova di Carta, a literary guide to the city that, also equipped with a map, highlights the most critical places for writers.

As can be deduced from the examples given, literary tourism in Genoa is a phenomenon in continuous expansion: the city, which is the landing, passage, or departure point for an innumerable number of authors, needs to enhance its literary heritage even more through the development of specific itineraries, usable and inclusive, that make the places more appreciated and allow the tourist to add to what he sees also literary knowledge. (All translations are by the writer).

How to cite this dictionary entry: Anselmo, E. (2024). Genoa: Literary tourism. In R. Baleiro, G. Capecchi & J. Arcos-Pumarola (Eds.). E-Dictionary of Literary Tourism. University for Foreigners of Perugia.