There’s a Sunday when Genoa, however much you love it, feels a bit too cramped. It’s not Genoa’s fault: it’s just that the sea, on Sunday, calls elsewhere. You want a city that resembles Genoa but isn’t — the same caruggi, the same scent of salt and fried food, the same oblique light on the palaces — yet one that guards a different history, less told, almost secret.
Just 50 minutes by train from Genoa and you find yourself in Savona: the city that for centuries was the rival of the Superba, defeated, humiliated, and finally transformed into a military outpost to keep it in check. A history still legible today in the stones, if you know where to look.
A city that Genoa wanted to bend
Savona was never an ordinary city. In the Middle Ages it was a port that rivaled Genoa, with its own commercial ambitions, its own alliances, even its own fleet. The rivalry between the two cities lasted centuries, made of skirmishes, naval blockades, treaties torn up and stitched back together. Genoa won, as often happens between neighbors contending for the same sea.
Fotoscot, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The harshest point of this story still stands there, atop the promontory overlooking the center: the Fortezza del Priamar. The Genoese built it in the sixteenth century — after definitively subduing Savona — right over the heart of medieval Savona, razing to the ground houses, towers and other historic buildings to make room for the bastions. A gesture that was not merely strategic: it was a message. Climbing up there today, with the wind coming straight from the sea and the view spanning the entire gulf, means walking literally over the remains of a city erased to make room for another’s dominion.
The name of Genoa itself, for that matter, bears the marks of centuries of reinterpretation: it derives from the Latin Genua, perhaps linked to a root meaning “knee” (for the curved shape of the gulf) or “mouth,” referring to the mouth of the Bisagno River. In the Middle Ages it was reread as Ianua, “gate,” and among the historical epithets by which the city was called in chronicles appears also “La Dominante” — an epithet shared, it should be said, also by Venice — but the nickname that more than any other has crossed the centuries remains “La Superba.”
Today the Priamar hosts exhibition spaces, an open-air theater and a small archaeological museum. Don’t expect the crowds of other Ligurian castles: it’s one of Savona’s virtues, its discretion. You can enjoy the walkways and bastions almost in solitude, especially during the less central hours of the day.
The historic center: towers, cathedral and stone alleys
Descending from Priamar toward the heart of the city, Savona reveals a historic center that surprises for its density and layering. The medieval towers — once there were many more of them, symbols of the power of Savonan noble families — still punctuate the skyline among the rooftops today, testimony to an era when the city was anything but peripheral.
Diani Stefano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Cathedral of Nostra Signora Assunta, with its Baroque façade, is the religious heart of the city: inside it preserves works and furnishings that tell centuries of Savonan patronage, often linked to families that also had weight in Genoese history — not least the Della Rovere, who gave the city two popes.
Walking through the alleys of the center, in the hour between ten and noon, means encountering the slow rhythm of a city that lives by itself more than by tourism. Craft shops, the scent of freshly baked bread coming from the ovens, the buzz of people shopping. It’s an authentic, weekday Savona, which comes alive in summer but never loses itself entirely.
The Pinacoteca Civica and Donato de’ Bardi
Few guides insist enough on this point: the Pinacoteca Civica of Savona preserves one of the most interesting collections in Western Liguria, with works ranging from late Gothic to the Renaissance. The name to look for is that of Donato de’ Bardi, a fifteenth-century painter active between Lombardy and Liguria, whose works the pinacoteca preserves with surprising refinement for those expecting only “minor” provincial art.
Sailko, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
It’s the type of museum you visit in a good hour, without queues, without the background noise of large city museums. An hour that returns far more than what it costs in time: the feeling of discovering something that almost no one had told you about before.
Savona’s chinotto: a flavor that is identity
There is a product that ties Savona to its agricultural and commercial history more than any monument: chinotto. This small, dark bitter citrus fruit has been cultivated in the Savona area since the seventeenth century and for centuries has been an ingredient in syrups, candied fruits, and liqueurs. Today traditional cultivation has been largely recovered by small local producers, after a period of sharp decline in the twentieth century.
David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In the center of Savona you’ll find small shops and pastry shops selling candied chinotto, syrups and derived products: it’s worth seeking them out, because the flavor — bitterish, almost resinous, very far from the sweetness that Mediterranean citrus fruits have accustomed us to — is a taste experience that is rarely found outside this area. Taking home a jar of it is a more authentic souvenir than any refrigerator magnet.
How to get to Savona from Genoa
The most convenient way, especially for those staying in our residences in central Genoa, is by train. From Genova Principe or Genova Brignole regional connections to Savona are frequent — more than one per hour during daytime — with a travel time of about 45-50 minutes. Savona railway station is just a few minutes’ walk from the historic center, so no other transport is needed to start your visit.
By car, the journey along the A10 takes about 45 minutes, but parking in the historic center can be complicated on summer weekends: if you choose to drive, it’s better to aim for parking near the port or station and continue on foot. For those who don’t drive, however, the train remains the simplest and most pleasant choice: the coastal stretch offers glimpses of the sea that are worth the trip by themselves.
A typical day in Savona
Start early, with one of the first morning trains: arriving in Savona around nine o’clock leaves you with the whole day ahead. Begin with a walk through the historic center, perhaps stopping at the covered market, the city’s oldest, where Saturday is traditionally the liveliest day among stalls of fresh fish, vegetables from the Savona inland, and local products — a good way to feel the city’s real pulse, far from tourist circuits.
Mid-morning, dedicate an hour to the Pinacoteca Civica, then let the side streets guide you to the cathedral. For lunch, Savona offers good fresh fish options, especially in the trattorias near the port: look for places frequented by locals themselves, often more authentic and convenient than restaurants overlooking the tourist seafront.
In the early afternoon climb up to the Priamar: it’s the best time, when the heat has eased a bit and the light begins to turn golden on the bastions. From up there, before heading back down to the station for your return, allow yourself a few moments of quiet watching the gulf — the same sea that for centuries has divided and united Savona and Genoa.
Seasonality: when to visit
Savona is enjoyable almost all year round, but spring and early autumn remain the best times: mild temperatures, less crowding than the peak summer months, perfect light for photographing the towers and bastions of the Priamar. In summer the center comes more alive, but never reaches the overcrowding levels of other Riviera destinations: it’s one of the reasons why it’s worth choosing it even in August, when elsewhere it would be unthinkable to find a free table without booking days in advance.
The detail that makes the trip worthwhile
What makes Savona special is not a single monument, but the sensation — rare in Liguria — of walking through a city that has not yet decided to live by tourism alone. The Priamar, built by Genoa to stifle Savona’s autonomy, has paradoxically become the most photographed symbol of the city it tried to erase: history, sometimes, takes its silent revenge. Seeing those bastions knowing what they represented completely changes the way you see them.
Returning to Genoa, with one more story
The evening train back crosses the same coast that centuries ago saw Genoese and Savonese galleys competing for the same waters. Arriving in Genoa with the sun setting over the port, knowing that waiting for you is not just any hotel room but one of our homes in the heart of the city, is the best part of any day trip: the return that feels like coming home.
If you feel like discovering Genoa’s forgotten rival this Sunday, book your stay in one of our residences and leave without rush, knowing that in the evening you’ll find your spaces, your rhythms, your Genoa. For other day trip ideas from the city, our Genoa guide awaits you with other suggestions for your Ligurian Sundays.
