You might expect a street laid out in the 16th and 17th centuries as a setting for palaces of Genoa's richest and most powerful families to be a grand broad avenue, but Via Garibaldi is little more than a lane.
It seems even narrower because it is hemmed in on both sides by the grandiose facades of side-by-side palaces.
This little street, which lies north of Piazza Ferrari and above the sailors' quarter, is worth walking down even if none of the palaces is open to tour.
Its facades present a succession of carved and painted embellishments, frescoes, grand arcades and loggias, balconies, courtyards, and entrances crowned by crests of noble families whose homes these were.
