Vespa Tunes XX: Via del Campo, Fabrizio de André, 1967

All photos taken last week

Last week was the week of Ferragosto and I decided to make my way to London by train and boat. My first stop was at Forte dei Marmi on the Tuscan coast from where, after a delightfully restful couple of days visiting friends and contemplating the mountains of Carrara marble from the sea, I continued to Genoa.

Cathedral of San Lorenzo, Genoa

It is a northern (for Rome) city with a very southern feel. Port cities have a certain common atmosphere I find, and in the muggy August heat Genoa’s grubby pavements exuded a distinct whiff of Palermo or Naples.

The urgency of port cities and the jumble of people from all over who have carved out their spaces in an already ancient fabric always makes me think of what ancient Roman cities must have been like. The porticoes of Genoa are no exception, even if the via di Sottoripa now has a flyover between it and the port.

The porticoes of via di Sottoripa, and a nicely repurposed Roman column.

This example of the Bladerunner style of town planning so enthusiastically embraced in the Brave New World of postwar Italy—a festival of concrete and automobiles; a chicken in every pot and a Fiat in every garage—which divorced the city from its raison d’être, which had been heavily damaged by Allied bombings in 1941.

Trofie (the correct Genoese pasta for pesto) and Carruggi (the tangle of medieval alleyways)