Genoa eats like a port that never stopped trading: chickpea farinata baked in copper pans, focaccia sold by weight before breakfast, basil pounded in marble mortars. Three days through markets, fry shops and old-town trattorie.
Genoa's 1899 covered market sits inside a former Augustinian cloister: stalls of Genovese PDO basil, salted Cetara-style anchovies, prescinseua curd and Albenga violet asparagus. Mon–Sat 07:00–19:00, Wed afternoon quiet.
A two-floor workers' canteen running since 1962, paper tablecloths and a handwritten menu that changes daily. Minestrone alla genovese with a spoon of pesto, ravioli al tocco, cima ripiena. Lunch only, closed Sunday.
Focaccia genovese and focaccia col formaggio come out of the oven every half hour on the city's densest food street, sold by weight and wrapped in paper. Genoese dunk the plain version in cappuccino at breakfast.
The fishing-village cove east of the centre, reached in 20 minutes on bus 31. Amedeo has scooped here since the 1960s; the pine-nut and candied-citron flavours mirror Ligurian pastry. Eaten sitting on the pebble beach.
Open since 1930 in the caruggi, its wooden drawers hold Pra' pine nuts, Sicilian salted capers, Taggiasca olives and the pecorino sardo that authentic pesto needs. Marble mortars and boxwood pestles sold at the counter.
Roberto Panizza's restaurant, run by the family behind the Pesto World Championship. Trofie and trenette al pesto made in the mortar, plus rarities like tocco di carne and stoccafisso accomodato. Booking essential.
A confectioner working since 1780 behind an intact 19th-century shopfront of mirrors and gilt. Candied fruit, rose-water sweets, chocolate-dipped orange peel and quaresimali biscuits, all still made without industrial glucose.
A former dockers' tavern near the old port serving the Republic's seafood repertoire: cappon magro layered with vegetables and fish, buridda stew, and burrida di seppie with pine nuts. Ligurian whites by the glass.
A sciamadda is a wood-fired bakery selling farinata by the wedge. This one pours chickpea batter into tinned copper pans and pulls out torta pasqualina, cuculli and panissa. Standing room only, counter service from 09:00.
Under the medieval Sottoripa arcades facing the harbour, this fry shop serves paper cones of anchovies, whitebait, squid rings and panissa sticks. Frying since 1815, eaten standing against the columns with a beer.
A tiny caruggio gelateria working with seasonal Ligurian produce: Taggiasca olive oil, chinotto di Savona, and a basil sorbet that tastes like unfinished pesto. Small batches, so flavours sell out by late afternoon.
Aperitivo inside the frescoed piano nobile of Palazzo Imperiale, one of the Rolli palaces. Cocktails built on Ligurian ingredients — chinotto, basil, Rossese — with plates of focaccia di Recco and Sciacchetrà dessert wine.