By The change has taken place. Over the past twenty years Genoa has turned from industrial city to an exceptional tourist destination and glances expectantly towards the service industry. The revolution generated by the union of Telecommunications and Information Technology, ICT-Information Communication Technology is, for Genoa, the cause of the change thanks to a long-standing culture of doing, the upshot of the industrial tradition. Despite the ongoing global economic and financial crisis, today the city is focused on new key investments linked to the combination of the research/learning and tourism industries. Just to name the two most significant examples related to these two sectors: the Erzelli Technological Park and the Aquarium’s new Whale and Dolphin Pavilion which are also the two chief investments currently in progress in the north of the country. The skill of the Genoese, the profit-making DNA joined with the typical parsimonious manner (intended here in its positive connotation and therefore “carefulness in choosing investments”) has allowed the fifth-largest city in Italy to change skin and secure its future. With the same spirit and vision that inspired Christopher Columbus in 1492, Genoa – in a few years and successfully – has renewed much of its glorious historic center, its illustrious Rolli palaces have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, above all, has turned the area of the Old Port into a new wedge of the city with original and extraordinary views of the sea. The Old Port of Genoa with the intelligent intuition of including from the beginning of the redevelopment project the aquarium designed by the well-known Genoese architect Renzo Piano was the driving force of the tourist industry’s expansion. Today, the Aquarium – known throughout the country – has become the symbol of Genoa’s tourism and has set culture and edutainment as its main feature. Other outstanding attractions are WOW! Genoa Science Center, la Città dei bambini e dei ragazzi, Antarctica National Museum, Luzzati Museum and De Amicis Library. We are close to a new phase of the transformation process. In a few weeks the Aquarium doubles thanks to the addition of the new Cetaceans Pavilion, an incomparable work, a model, also a product of Piano’s creativity and capable of accommodating up to 9 dolphins but, above all, capable of inducing unique feelings in its visitors thanks to the tunnel inside in the large pool and a glassless passage at the edge of the water and thus in close contact to the animals. After the great challenge of the 500th anniversary celebrations of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America, the G8 in 2001, Europe’ Capital of Culture in 2004, Genoa, which possesses the highest level of education amongst Italian cities, a celebrated university and a centuries-old maritime-port tradition represents the real innovation on the national scene. Hence, imagine Genoa as an extremely advanced natural hub, a point of interchange, a meeting place, a center of professionalism, a conference location; like a computer network hub, Genoa requires fast and efficient connections equivalent to broadband performance – the new frontier in the internet and telecommunications world. Once more, the city is moving forward in this direction with the railway junction project (more than 600 million invested) and the high-speed link towards Milan with more than 6 billion euro in the coming years, not to mention the activities aimed at strengthening the port, first in the country and among the most important in the Mediterranean. Genoa, therefore, deserves a visit and will enchant you… and you will come back again, and again, and again…
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