Sturla

There's a nursery school (Nini Corsanego) as well as a kindergarten (Bartolomeo Chighizola), both on the road leading from Piazza Sturla to Vernazzola beach.

[...]In the area of Sturla, starting from the early Middle Ages, several maritime settlements arose due to the presence of useful landing places.

Vernazzola is a picturesque fishing village at the mouth of the Vernazza river located a short distance to the east of Boccadasse.

Some of the streets around Vernazzola have characteristic names inspired by ancient classical mythology: Argonauti, Giasone, Icarus, Pelio, Urania.

These names were chosen at the request of the last mayor of San Francesco d'Albaro, a passionate lover of the classical world, shortly before the annexation of the town to Genoa, in the second half of the 18th Century.

Today the village, partly reduced in size by the opening immediately upstream of an enlarged road (Via Dei Mille), consists of a few houses clustered around the ancient Oratorio di San Celso, the existence of which has been documented since 1311 although it was rebuilt in the Baroque period and then completely rebuilt in 2002. the Vernazza river, now completely channeled into tunnels, which flows from the area of the ancient Roman road, Via Aurelia, which is also known as Vernazza, in the district of San Martino, through the small valley containing the Martin Luther King high school, passes under Piazza Sturla and finally flows into the sea in an outlet in Vernazzola.

One of the first free beaches heading east from the city center it attracts vast numbers of people all through the summer months.

The church was built at the behest of two priests, Pietro Micichero and Domenico Verrucca, who had founded a congregation of secular canons.

From 1441 it was officiated by the Canonici di San Giorgio in Alga, popularly called "Celestini", who remained there until 1668 when the congregation was dissolved by Pope Clement IX.

In Sturla you’ll also find the convent of Sisterhood of St. John the Baptist, a religious order of women founded in the mid-eighteenth century by Giovanna Maria Battista Solimani.

In 1284, Oberto Doria, Captain of the People and Admiral of the Republic of Genoa, during the war against Pisa, which culminated on August 6 in the same year as the battle of Meloria, deployed his ships in front of the Sturla beach, waiting for the events to unfold.

[7] In 1363, during a banquet given by the nobleman Pietro Malocello in honor of Peter I, King of Cyprus, visiting Genoa, the Doge, Simone Boccanegra was mysteriously poisoned.

Sturla was once famous for its zavorristi, the men who loaded and unloaded the ballast required by sailing ships to maintain the right balance out at sea.

The new road, perpendicular to the ancient creuze (little streets that lead down toward the sea), put an end to the isolation of the city from Levante, reaching Piazza Sturla, heading towards San Martino and then on to Genoa.

[8] In more recent times, the water polo team, having missed out on promotion to the A1 league in the early nineties, currently plays in Serie B.

Among these we can mention in the men's Mattia Alberico and Marco Formentini, and in the ladies Paola Cavallino and Giorgia Consiglio (the women's race has been held since 1986).

The Circolo Nautico Sturla, founded in 1981 by some sturlesi is active in sailing, and pesca subacquea (fishing while scuba diving).

The CNS is now one of the few clubs in Liguria to be awarded a title of Italian champion teams "Fishing SUB second category" (1997), and its athlete, Diego Romero, earned a bronze medal in the Laser class at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Aerial photo of Sturla.
The Medio Levante municipality
Genova Sturla Vernazzola
Sturla river
Church of the Santissima Annunziata
Via Isonzo