Every design for Genova

From the top of the Bigo, the panoramic lift above the harbour, Genoa looks like a city still built for the sea: cranes and ships below, palaces stacked against the hills, and the old lighthouse, the Lanterna, standing guard over the busiest port in Italy. For more than seven centuries this was the capital of one of the great maritime republics, and Petrarch called it la Superba, the superb one.

Palazzo Rosso and Palazzo Bianco belong to the Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli, a UNESCO World Heritage Site: grand houses built by merchant families when Genoa ranked among the wealthiest cities in the world and the Bank of Saint George was already lending. Below them the caruggi, the narrow alleys of one of Europe's largest old towns, wind down towards the water past the Torre degli Embriaci and the Palazzo Ducale.

Columbus was born here, as were Paganini, Mazzini and Fabrizio De André, and the Casa di Cristoforo Colombo still stands by Porta Soprana. If Genoa raised you, or simply won you over, you already know its voice; wear it with a little of that Superba pride.