I arrived, the second of my three arrivals, and exiting the elevator at my front door I was serendipitously greeted by my elderly neighbor who was, beyond all pre-expectations for the genovese, more friendly than I’d expected in this or in any other city. I was disoriented by his kindness. The reason for my appreciation is obvious but it doesn’t take into consideration the rudderlessness you feel (I feel) in a foreign land etc. And, again, the unfair reputation the Genovese people get for being aggressively aloof with the non-Genovese is now something I will fight against.
The people I’ve met since have been just as piacievole.
Early on, Georgio invited me to see the apartment directly below me, that he also owns and is renovating, and at one point gave me a history book of Genova. The very first chapter talks about the ancient walls that protected the city and how over the centuries they expanded as the city did. They were added to, concentrically out as expected, and with each growth spurt there were additions of various gates to accommodate ingress, egress, etc. It’s a complex history of both shifting borders and transient artifacts.
Genoa has more and longer walls than any other city in Italy.
—Walls of Genoa (Wikipedia)
I was immediately interested in pursuing the history of the gates because they provided an opportunity to visit the city and it’s history and tie those to a specific theme. There are sometimes years and sometimes centuries between events that are spread across the space of a city that is being redefined by each ruler and each economic achievement. Every city has it’s unique pathways to historic insight–the Paris catacombs, New Orleans ghooooost tours–and those lyric pathways are obviously not the city in it’s entirety, but they do act as entry points to discover a true aspect of the city (and sometimes metaphors can be a bit on-the-nose).
It was the same trip, that second one that consisted of two months working, that I came up with my rules:
- Interact with someone on any level at least once a day
- Every Friday morning go see something new in the city
And it was from #2 that the Portal Tours eventually accommodated, though I need to continue visiting and re-visiting museums, etc.
Last night (Thu 5 Feb) I satisfied what I hope to make into a third rule. I have tried to be more frugal while here because, though we don’t have a mortgage in the states, this apartment is rent, electricity, gas, and wifi (although if you can’t enjoy a lack of mortgage what the hell was all of this for?). Most of the time I buy quotidian versions of everything: food, wine, etc. in order to keep the budget low but also because the USD is absolute crap against the Euro right now and shows no sign of showing no sigh of getting a clue. The exchange rate is so bad that I’m not sure that a €3 bottle of average wine makes up much for the $12 I would pay in the states for same. I’m exaggerating but the exaggeration is based on anger so it’s a sincere exaggeration.
In order to quell the fight-or-flight frugality, I’ve come up with Rule #3:
- Go out for dinner once a week
That seems both a bit much and a bit just enough. One of my favorite restaurants from the first week I came is La Sagola. The environment, owner, food, and location are perfect for it to be a perfect choice to satisfy Rule #3 on its own, but also from the start I’ve wanted to become, if not a familiar face, at least a face to the local restaurants. Thursday’s inaugural dinner came after a weekend where I stayed inside both because it was il tempo brutto but also because I felt at a dead end of connecting to the city. That’s not at all true, but it feels partly true.
The first day I planned my trip I mapped out seven gates and saw two. Last Friday [ed. writing this for a long time, forget what “Friday” means here] I planned for one that was 15 minutes away and didn’t get there until an hour after I left the apartment. Meandering is the best type of learning a city. The map above is based on OpenStreetMap data using a site called uMap to annotate that data with personal information. (All part of an attempt to remove my dependence on US data companies). I’ll continue to add pins for more gates as I see them.
Table of Contents
Le mure
Different rings of walls were built through the centuries and they exist today as anywhere from fragments to key components of neighborhoods. I’m focusing on le porte but le mure are just as key. (Wait. A wall is needed for a door to exist?!?) The Wikipedia article Walls of Genoa has a series of five maps showing the growth and the concentric rings (cinta) through the centuries. Their expansive coverage, in effect, saying: Don’t Fuck with Genova at Any Point in Time. (Sadly, this was only partly successful.)
The maps below, progressing through time, I’ve labeled A-E so I can back-reference from each porta that I visit.
Today, my apartment is located in the map from the 1600s at the extreme lower right where that last intersection is. I am not protected.
Before we get into it, here are the reference sites I used:
- iSEGRETIdeiVICOLIdiGENOVA – This is an encyclopedic source of knowledge of Genoa (“The secrets of the Genoa alleys”)
- Le Mura del X secolo – Blog entry about the wall at Serravalle gate, but with further links to entries about many of the other gates
- Walls of Genoa (Wikipedia, EN); Mura di Genova (Wikipedia, IT)
Le porte
Porta degli archi (Fri 19 Dec 2025)
1540-1548 – Pier Antonio da Carona and Antonio Roderio. Map C (1300s) on the right.
(also Porta di Santo Stefano)
This is located where via Riccardo Banderali u-turns through Mura del Prato. The photo in the center was taken with my back towards the gate and the one on the right was taken down the street and looking back towards the gate. From that last photo you can also see that the gate is at the top of yet another section of the wall.
- Facing the gate, the Mura di Cappuccine is on the left of the gate
- Mura del Prato is on the right of the gate
- Walking down the street to the right, photos 2 and 3, takes you to the Mura di Santa Chirara
From this first visit, much more than the cinematic and popular Porta soprana below, I understood how fundamental they were to the character of the city.
Porta soprana (Fri 19 Dec 2025)
800s, map A; modified in 1155, map B (1155-1163)
This is one of the main eastern entrances to centro storico. My photo reveals little of the gate proper, but I’m standing in a giardino next to Christopher Columbus’s house looking towards the two towers flanking the Porta soprana. Anyway, it’s impossible to not see these in photos of Genova in any travel guide. I had walked through this gate a thousand times but never thought about what it is. The gate gave me passage to centro storico and that was enough. In the first map of the mure above, you can see Porta Soprana.
Updated 26 Feb 2026
Watching polizieschi from the 70s and several were filmed in Genoa. There’s a certain thrill recognizing the location (and especially the absolute 70s dinginess, a la Midtown Manhattan in the 70s, of centro storico). Here’s an aerial shot of Porta soprana from La polizia incrimina, la legge assolve (1973) [ IMDB | Wikipedia ] along with the satellite image of the same today from Google Maps:
San Lorenzo (Serravalle gate) (Sat 10 Jan 2026)
800s, map A (900s)
I can’t say too much about this because I’m still absolutely puzzled. This photo is via Tommaso Reggio directly behind Cattedrale di San Lorenzo. That rough stone wall to the left is all that remains of one of the earliest walls of Genova and connects Serravalle and (next) San Pietro.
Il tratto di mura superstite fra le porte di Serravalle e di San Pietro in via Tommaso Reggio
The surviving part of the wall from Serravalle Gate and San Pietro in via Tommaso Reggio
Mura di Genova (Wikipedia IT)
I’m not certain that the arch further down the path is Serravalle Gate.
The first known city walls were built in the 9th century [and] had three gates: the Serravalle gate, at the north side of the church of San Lorenzo, another on the hill of Saint Andrew, near the site of the future Porta Soprana, and another one at the end of “Via Canneto il curto”, near the church of San Peter.
Walls of Genoa (Wikipedia EN)
Porta di San Pietro (Sat 10 Jan 2026)
In Piazza delle Cinque lampadi. Map A (900s).
When I arrived I wasn’t sure which it was: the newer one on the left, the remains of an arch center right, or those odd, gated windows on the right. It’s kindof obvious though. I keep double-checking the references to when this was created (see Le porte della cinta del IX secolo) because renovations apparently have cleaned it up quite a bit.
Porta Siberia (Fri 16 Jan 2026)
Galeazzo Alessi and Antonio Roderio da Carona. 1550-1553. Map B (1500s) center-left.
The name is a mispronunciation of “cibaria” (food/groceries) because it used to be used to store food. It is also (correctly?) call Porta del Molo because it is in the Molo neighborhood.
Porta Chiesa di San Torpete (Fri 23 Jan 2026)
935?
The Porta di San Torpete may have never existed, but I had to visit the location all the same and it reaffirmed why I’m visiting these gates: I discovered a new area of centro storico that I hadn’t been, and found an antique shop with a wealth of nonsense that I may have to return to. (I’ve been on the hunt for some antique cocktail glasses to complement my makeshift apartment bar. Currently, my Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo Old Fashioned Glasses are being used as stand-ins.)
The fact that there’re only rumors of a gate make the idea of gates even more important.
Si hanno notizie di questa porta già nella cinta muraria cittadina nel 935 d.C.
There were already references to this gate in the city walls in 935 CE.
iSEGRETIdeiVICOLIdiGENOVA, see also Chiesa di San Torpete (Wikipedia IT)
Porta dei Vacca (Fri 30 Jan 2026)
1155-1159. Not marked, but in the same era as Map B. Porta dei Vacca (Wikipedia IT)
Initially Porta di Santa Fede then renamed after the wealthy Vacchero family. This along with Porta Soprana and Porta Aurea were the main gates of the Barbarossa wall. Porta dei Vacca was nicknamed “Porta Sottana” (complementing Porta Soprana). These three gates were all framed by two semicircular towers. You can just see from the photo above that the towers end abruptly at the back, these are horseshoe-shaped towers whose outside curve helps “resist siege engines” but flat back provides more space inside for fighters.
The third, Aurea (golden), was partially destroyed in the 1800s and completely in 1960. Port’Aurea became Portd d’Oria became the modern neighborhood Portoria. These photos from Piccapietra, Piccon dagghe cianin include the moment of destruction and are oddly moving (there is much history provided in that article’s Italian text that I have not yet fully understood). Also, click on this photo in the article and it opens a slideshow of more historical photos.
Porta Pila (Fri 6 Feb 2026)
1647-1649. Map E, but not marked. Now north of Brignole station.
This is, beyond belief, on a hill north of Brignole Station. Brignole is my primary train station maybe a 15 minute walk north of my apartment. The gate’s location on a hill provides a beautiful view of the city, which illustrates the beyond-belief-ed-ness: why build a gate on a hill? I had to read this several times because, again, my Italian is horrible, but it was originally around the intersection of via XX Settembre and via Fiume. This is a busy area just south of Brignole station and so as the location was built up and modernized there were plans to destroy the gate. A public outcry saved it and moved it to this unlikely elevation.
Portello di Pastorezza (Fri 20 Feb 2026)
Map B (1155-1163), marked “Portello” near the top.
I had been wanting to visit this for a while but hadn’t–for the most stupid reason–because I couldn’t find it on Google Maps and so thought maybe it was on private property or just… gone. Not unexpected with an 900-year old gate. I finally read a few web sites that research and write about the walls and gates of Genoa and found enough, more precise, markers to track it down.
It was everything I’d hoped.
The other, more grand porte are nice enough but don’t really evoke the ancient-ness that they represent. This, with its minimal and low-key creepy-ness feels like it came from before. It’s like that section of wall at Serravalle Gate. It’s just some stones, but they are stones from the 800s that had a notable historic purpose.
I told my Italian teacher that I’ve gone native and asked her what the reciprocal Italian phrase would be for that. Mi sono itegrato perfettamente. These gates, these few gates I’ve visited, are still indistinct and out-of-time in my imagination. There’s too much history to ingest in too little time and they seem to float through the city and through time. My next focus (although I really need to visit as close-as-possible the site of sad Port’Aurea) will be to attempt to tie these points together by visiting the different areas of walls. I’m sure I’ve already been to key locations, but if you don’t acknowledge it you’re not really in the presence of it.