Royal days in Genova

Do you want to see dozens of splendid royal palaces with 500-hundred history in one place? Then you should travel to Genova — a famous Italian city on the Mediterranean Sea, the main city of the Italian Riviera.

There is saved the biggest original historical centre in Europe. You can find there more than one hundred palaces, built in XVI-XVII century, with beautiful facades, fountains and murals, saved until nowadays. 42 palaces are included in the list of UNESCO heritage.

A few royal palaces are open for tourists like museums all year. But the biggest part is a private property. Twice a year palaces open their doors for everybody without charge to show a heritage of Genovese aristocracy. It looks like a Day of open doors. These days are named “Rolli days” according to the name of a list of palaces “Rolli”, composed in 1576.

Last “Rolli days” took place in October 2018. There are 30 palaces that opened their doors, four of them did it first in their history. For instance, The Spinola Palace opened for visiting the hall with murals of XVIII century by Domenico Parodi.

One more interesting fact about Royal palaces in Genova. Earlier the majority of this palaces were included in “governmental” hotel system. The owners must host guests of Royal family and members of official delegations. In this way it became it was the first chain of hotels in Europe.

At the beginning of XVII century these palaces inspired Rubens. He had drawn all palaces in details and then he published a book with them. He recommended these facades as a sample of buildings for aristocrats.

If you visit Genova on usual days, not on Royal Days, you also can see Royal palaces, at least their facades. Visit Via Garibaldi. There are located a complex of museums: Red Palace, White Palace and Palace of Doria Tursi. They are considered to have collections of masterpieces from XV till XIX century.

They are open for tourists all days. I also strongly recommend you to visit Palazzo Reale near the main railway station and the University of Genova.

You can find information about working hours of museums here visitgenoa.it