(2024-05-27/29) Only now do I understand why Christopher Columbus, the most prominent son of the city of Genoa, was drawn to faraway places. In 2004, Genoa - together with Lille in France - was awarded the title of European Capital of Culture. While Lille, as we saw at the beginning of my tour, has benefited from this, Genoa has not. The city is drowning in noise, dirt and exhaust fumes; no bikes, no e-scooters, no e-mobility. The narrow streets of the old town are already characterized by prostitution and drug dealing during the day. Rat traps are set up in front of every third house. You wouldn't want to be buried here, you might think, but that's not the case. The one square kilometer Staglieno Monumental Cemetery, built on a slope, is impressive beyond all measure. Mark Twain wrote about it in 1869: “Our last sight was the cemetery (a burial place intended to accommodate 60,000 bodies,) and we shall continue to remember it after we shall have forgotten the palaces. It is a vast marble collonaded corridor extending around a great unoccupied square of ground; its broad floor is marble, and on every slab is an inscription—for every slab covers a corpse. On either side, as one walks down the middle of the passage, are monuments, tombs, and sculptured figures that are exquisitely wrought and are full of grace and beauty.“ My conclusion is: The dead live well in Genoa!
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