The little cove
Fishing boats on shingle beneath coloured houses.
Alexdechi — CC BY-SA 4.0 · EJBJane — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Alfred Zoff — Public domain · Nissato — CC BY 4.0
**A fishing village of pastel houses around a small shingle cove — inside the city limits of Genoa** — about 4 km east of the centre. ⚠ **The surprise is that it was never swallowed**: **Genoa is a large city and an industrial port**, **but Boccadasse has stayed as it was** — **a few dozen coloured houses** stepping down to a **small bay** with fishing boats drawn up on the shingle. ✅ **The colours are not tourist decoration**: **fishermen painted their houses in different bright colours** so they could pick out their own from the sea. ✅ **It is the end of the Corso Italia** — a level seafront promenade some 2.5 km from Albaro, **walked by Genoese every evening**. ⚠ **There is nothing here "to visit"**: you come to sit, eat ice cream and look.
Fishing boats on shingle beneath coloured houses.
A level seafront promenade the city walks every evening.
Low light on the coloured house fronts.
Boccadasse, 16146 Genoa, Italy
**Pesto and focaccia — both Genoese in origin and quite unlike what you know elsewhere.** ✅ **Pesto**: **Genoa's sauce**, named from **pestare**, to pound in a mortar — **small-leaved Genoese basil, pine nuts, garlic, Parmigiano and pecorino, and Ligurian olive oil**, **pounded and never cooked**. ⚠ **The difference from the jarred kind is enormous**: fresh, it is **pale green and fragrant**, not dark and sharp. ✅ **It is traditionally served with trenette or trofie** — pasta with **potato and green beans** in the same dish; **that is the original plate**, not pesto on spaghetti. ✅ **Focaccia**: **Genoa's bread**, ⚠ **and it is eaten at breakfast** — **Genoese dip it in coffee or cappuccino**, which startles visitors but is entirely ordinary. ✅ **Its kinds**: **the classic with oil and salt**, **onion focaccia**, ✅ **and *focaccia di Recco*** — quite a different thing, from nearby Recco: **very thin and filled with soft cheese**, **among the best things to eat in Liguria**. ✅ **Also**: **farinata** (a thin chickpea pancake) and **pandolce**. ⚠ **All of it in the caruggi at very low prices.**
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