It is the birthplace of Guglielmo Embriaco, Christopher Columbus, Andrea Doria, Niccolò Paganini, Giuseppe Mazzini, Renzo Piano and Grimaldo Canella, founder of the House of Grimaldi, among others.

[29] To regain control of local commerce, the Republic of Genoa allied with Michael VIII Palaiologos, emperor of Nicaea, who wanted to restore the Byzantine Empire by recapturing Constantinople.

[54] In 2017, the architect Renzo Piano donated the design of the Levante Waterfront[55][56] to the Municipality of Genoa; this project involves a radical transformation of the Fiera di Genova, with the creation of a new dock and an urban park, the continuation of Corso Italia towards Porta Siberia and the construction of residential structures.

The tragedy of the collapse of the Morandi Bridge and its rapid reconstruction with a new viaduct designed by architect Renzo Piano, which occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, facilitated by a redefinition of the implementing rules of public procurement, which has been defined as the Genoa model,[59][60] they will then give further impetus to the construction of the Levante Waterfront, and other important works for the city.

Starting from 2021, the Mayor Marco Bucci and the President of Liguria Giovanni Toti will launch a new plan for the modernization and redevelopment of the entire city of Genoa, which has as its fulcrum Renzo Piano's Levante Waterfront project.

[75] Genoa is also a windy city, especially during winter when northern winds often bring cool air from the Po Valley (usually accompanied by lower temperatures, high pressure and clear skies).

Another tourist destination is the ancient seaside district of Boccadasse (which means "the mouth of the donkey"), with its multicolour boats, set as a seal to Corso Italia, the promenade which runs along the Lido d'Albaro, and known for its ice-creams.

The total restoration of Doge's Palace and of the Old Harbour, and the rebuilding of Teatro Carlo Felice, destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, were two more points of strength for the realisation of a new Genoa.

The sphere (called by the citizens "Piano's bubble" or "The Ball"), after hosting an exposition of fens from Genoa's Botanical Gardens, currently houses the reconstruction of a tropical environment, with several plants, little animals and butterflies.

[85] In 1548 Galeazzo Alessi, with the project of Villa Giustiniani-Cambiaso [it], designed a new prototype of Genoese palace that would be an inspiration to other architects working in Genoa as Bartolomeo Bianco, Pietro Antonio Corradi, Rocco Lurago, Giovan Battista Castello, and Bernardino Cantone.

The cemetery is renowned for its statues and sepulchral monuments that preserve the mortal remains of notable personalities, including Giuseppe Mazzini, Fabrizio De André, and Constance Lloyd (Oscar Wilde's wife).

Other architects who have changed the face of Genoa in the 20th century are: Ignazio Gardella, Luigi Carlo Daneri [it] who realised the Piazza Rossetti and the residential complex so-called Il Biscione [it], Mario Labò [it], Aldo Rossi, Ludovico Quaroni, Franco Albini who designed the interiors of Palazzo Rosso, and Piero Gambacciani [it].

Other notable architectural works include: the Old Harbour's new design with the Aquarium, the Bigo [it] and the Biosfera [it] by Renzo Piano, the Palasport di Genova, the Matitone skyscraper, and the Padiglione B of Genoa Fair [it], by Jean Nouvel.

Renzo Piano redeveloped the area for public access, restoring the historical buildings (like the Cotton warehouses) and creating new landmarks like the Aquarium, the Bigo and recently the "Bolla" (the Sphere).

[95] Ligurian agriculture has increased its specialisation pattern in high-quality products (flowers, wine, olive oil) and has thus managed to maintain the gross value-added per worker at a level much higher than the national average (the difference was about 42% in 1999).

The first organised forms of higher education in Genoa date back to the 13th century when private colleges were entitled to award degrees in medicine, philosophy, Theology, Law, Arts.

Genoa is the birthplace of Giovanni Battista Baliani and Vincentio Reinieri, of the geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, of the Nobel Prize astrophysicist Riccardo Giacconi and of the astronaut Franco Malerba.

[107] The historical maritime station of Ponte dei Mille is today a technologically advanced cruise terminal, with facilities designed after the world's most modern airports, to ensure fast embarking and disembarking of all latest generation ships carrying a thousand passengers.

They are rich in works of art the Cathedral, the Chiesa del Gesù e dei Santi Ambrogio e Andrea [it] where The Circumcision and the "Miracles of St. Ignatius" by Rubens, the Assunzione della Vergine by Guido Reni.

The writer and translator Fernanda Pivano, the journalist "Vito Elio Petrucci" and the poet Edoardo Sanguineti, the literary critic Carlo Bo instead was born in Sestri Levante near Genoa.

In the first half of the 20th century, the Mazzini Gallery's was a meeting place of many artists, writers and intellectuals among whom Guido Gozzano, Salvatore Quasimodo, Camillo Sbarbaro, Francesco Messina, Pierangelo Baratono [it], Eugenio Montale.

Genoa was a centre of Occitan culture in Italy and for this reason it developed an important school of troubadours: Lanfranc Cigala, Jacme Grils, Bonifaci Calvo, Luchetto Gattilusio, Guillelma de Rosers, and Simon Doria.

Genoa is also the birthplace of the condcuctor Fabio Luisi and of many opera singers like Giuseppe Taddei, Margherita Carosio, Luciana Serra, Ottavio Garaventa [it], Luisa Maragliano and Daniela Dessì.

On the occasion of the Christopher Columbus celebration in 1992, new musical life was given to the area around the old port, including the restoration of the house of Paganini and presentations of the trallalero, the traditional singing of Genoese dock workers.

The principal authors and singers of the Nostalgic Song in Genoese dialect are Mario Cappello [it] who wrote the piece "Ma se ghe penso" (English: "But if I think about it"), a memory of Genoa by an emigrant to Argentina, Giuseppe Marzari [it], Agostino Dodero [it] up to I Trilli [it], Piero Parodi [it], Buby Senarega, Franca Lai [it].

Genoa in the second half of the 20th century was famous for an important school of Italian singer-songwriters, so-called Scuola Genovese, that includes Umberto Bindi, Luigi Tenco", "Gino Paoli", "Bruno Lauzi", "Fabrizio de André, Ivano Fossati, Angelo Branduardi" and Francesco Baccini.

Dishes of Genoese tradition include the Tripe cooked in various recipes like Sbira, the Polpettone di melanzane, the Tomaxelle, the Minestrone alla genovese [it],[122] the Bagnun, the fish-consisting Ciuppin (the precursor to San Francisco's Cioppino), the Buridda, the Seppie in zimino [it] and the Preboggion [it].

Among the personalities of the 19th and 20th centuries who wrote about Genoa were Heinrich Heine, Osip Mandelstam, Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen, Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde, John Ruskin,[124] Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Gustave Flaubert, Alexandre Dumas, Louis Énault, Valery Larbaud, Albert Camus, Paul Valéry, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paul Klee.

Famous Genoese include: Sinibaldo and Ottobuono Fieschi (Popes Innocent IV and Adrian V), Giovanni Battista Cybo (Pope Innocent VIII) and Giacomo della Chiesa (Pope Benedict XV), navigators Christopher Columbus, Antonio de Noli, Enrico Alberto d'Albertis, Enrico de Candia (Henry, Count of Malta) and Andrea Doria, composers Niccolò Paganini and Michele Novaro, Italian patriots Giuseppe Mazzini, Goffredo Mameli and Nino Bixio, writer and translator Fernanda Pivano, poet Edoardo Sanguineti, Communist politician Palmiro Togliatti, architect Renzo Piano, art curator and critic Germano Celant, Physics 2002 Nobel Prize winner Riccardo Giacconi, Literature 1975 Nobel Prize winner Eugenio Montale, the court painter Giovanni Maria delle Piane (Il Mulinaretto) from the Delle Piane family, artists Vanessa Beecroft, Enrico Accatino, comedians Gilberto Govi, Paolo Villaggio, Beppe Grillo, Luca Bizzarri, Paolo Kessisoglu and Maurizio Crozza; singer-songwriters Fabrizio de André, Ivano Fossati, Umberto Bindi, Bruno Lauzi and Francesco Baccini, while Luigi Tenco and Gino Paoli are also known as Genoese singer-songwriters, although they are respectively from Cassine and Monfalcone; actor Vittorio Gassman, and actress Moana Pozzi, Giorgio Parodi who conceived the motorcycle company Moto Guzzi with Carlo Guzzi and Giovanni Ravelli.

Among the latest generations, musicians like Andrea Bacchetti, Giulio Plotino, Sergio Ciomei, Lorenzo Cavasanti, Stefano Bagliano and Fabrizio Cipriani, as well as academics and authors like Michele Giugliano and Roberto Dillon, help in keeping the name of the city on the international spotlight in different fields among the arts, technology and culture.