Genoa

Genoa is the test case for this platform's whole thesis: a city with a UNESCO-listed street system, one of Europe's largest medieval old towns, the palace culture of a former superpower — and a fraction of the visitors its peers absorb. The caruggi, the alley-maze between the port and the hills, still run on grocers, friggitorie and washing lines; the Strade Nuove above them hold the Palazzi dei Rolli, the sixteenth-century palaces once rostered by lot to host visiting dignitaries, inscribed by UNESCO in 2006. Nothing here performs for you, which is exactly the appeal.

It is also the hinge of the Riviera by rail: every coastal line meets here, which is why our Côte d'Azur door routes through it. Give it two nights and it repays them; give it a rushed afternoon and it will shrug at you, as it has shrugged at everyone since the Doria family ran the Mediterranean.

March to June and September to October: sea light without the seaside heat, and the caruggi at their liveliest. The Rolli Days weekends — usually spring and autumn — open dozens of the private palaces to visitors and are worth planning around. High summer sends the Genoese to the beaches and leaves the city languid; winter is mild, rainy in spells, and entirely functional.

Genoa is the rail hub of the entire Ligurian coast: from Milan about an hour and three quarters, from Turin under two hours, from Ventimiglia around two on the Intercity and two and a half by Regionale Veloce, from La Spezia about an hour and a quarter. Two main stations — Piazza Principe for the old town and port, Brignole for the east — with frequent city trains between them. Inside the city, the caruggi are walked, and the hills are handled by the funiculars and the Art Nouveau lifts, the Zecca–Righi funicular and the Castelletto lift above all.

Sleep in or beside the old town: the lanes between Via Garibaldi and the port put the whole centre on foot, and several of the Rolli-era palazzi now carry small hotels and B&Bs in their upper floors — the city's most characteristic beds. The area around Brignole and Carignano is the quieter, more residential alternative. As in any port city, pick your lane rather than your price bracket: a well-reviewed address in the upper caruggi beats a cheap one by the docks.

This is the capital of pesto, and the city takes the basil seriously — trofie al pesto is the reference dish, made with the small-leaf basil of Prà. Around it: focaccia plain or col formaggio di Recco, farinata from the wood-oven friggitorie, and the fried-fish cones of the port lanes. The covered Mercato Orientale on Via XX Settembre is the belly of the city. Eat where the menus are short and handwritten; Genoa punishes restaurants that perform.

Walk Via Garibaldi first — the Strada Nuova of 1550, wall-to-wall Rolli palaces, three of them (Rosso, Bianco, Tursi) joined as the Musei di Strada Nuova with a paintings collection few cities its size can match. Then lose the map in the caruggi: San Lorenzo cathedral with its striped Gothic front, the Porta Soprana towers, and the sudden squares where the lanes exhale. Ride the Zecca–Righi funicular or the Castelletto lift for the roofscape.

The port side holds the Lanterna — the medieval lighthouse that is the city's emblem — and the Galata maritime museum for the emigration story that emptied half of Liguria into the Americas. For golden hour, take the short bus or walk east to Boccadasse, the fishing cove the city kept inside itself. If a Rolli Days weekend coincides with your visit, rebuild the itinerary around it.

• Language: Italian; English is fine in museums and hotels, patchier in the friggitorie — point and smile
• Currency: euro
• Plug: European type C/F/L
• Money: City-standard cards and ATMs; small notes useful in the market and the fry shops
• Mobile: Full coverage; the deepest caruggi can shadow a signal for a moment
• Good to know: The Musei di Strada Nuova run a combined ticket for the three palaces; Rolli Days weekends open many otherwise private palazzi — dates on the city's official channels
• Nearest hospital: Ospedale Galliera, south of the old town; San Martino is the large university hospital to the east