Via Garibaldi (Genoa)

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View of Palazzo Rosso, one of the palaces of Via Garibaldi

Via Garibaldi is street of the historical centre of Genoa, northern Italy, well known for its ancient palaces.

The street dates back to the year 1550. Originally named as Strada Maggiore, then Strada Nuova, only in 1882 its name was dedicated to Giuseppe Garibaldi.

The street is 250 metres long and 7.5 metres wide.

Since July 2006 Via Garibaldi is inscribed in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites as part of the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli and Strade Nuove del Centro Storico of Genoa.

In literature

Charles Dickens gave a suggestive description of Strada Nuova in his travelogue Pictures from Italy.

...When shall I forget the Streets of Palaces: the Strada Nuova and the Strada Balbi! or how the former looked one summer day, when I first saw it underneath the brightest and most intensely blue of summer skies: which its narrow perspective of immense mansions, reduced to a tapering and most precious strip of brightness, looking down upon the heavy shade below! The endless details of these rich Palaces: the walls of some of them, within, alive with masterpieces by Vandyke! The great, heavy, stone balconies, one above another, and tier over tier: with here and there, one larger than the rest, towering high up—a huge marble platform; the doorless vestibules, massively barred lower windows, immense public staircases, thick marble pillars, strong dungeon-like arches, and dreary, dreaming, echoing vaulted chambers: among which the eye wanders again, and again, and again, as every palace is succeeded by another- the terrace gardens between house and house, with green arches of the vine, and groves of orange-trees, and blushing oleander in full bloom, twenty, thirty, forty feet above the street—the painted halls, mouldering, and blotting, and rotting in the damp corners, and still shining out in beautiful colours and voluptuous designs...

External links

• Strada Nuova.it (English)