A história
In the 1550s Genoa's richest families cut a single straight street through the medieval city and lined it with palaces so grand the republic kept official lists of them, the Rolli, and billeted visiting popes and princes there by rank. Three of those palaces on the old Strada Nuova, now Via Garibaldi, are today one museum, and in 2006 the whole street entered the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Each palace keeps its own character. Palazzo Bianco holds Genoese and Flemish painting, including a late Caravaggio, the Ecce Homo. Palazzo Rosso is hung with portraits Anthony van Dyck painted of Genoese nobles during his years in the city, the sitters still watching from their own walls.
Palazzo Doria-Tursi, which also serves as the city hall, keeps a stranger treasure: the violin that belonged to Niccolo Paganini, the Genoa-born virtuoso, an instrument locals nicknamed the Cannon and still bring out to be played.
