Genoa shops the way it was built: vertically and in secret. Behind 1.5-metre-wide caruggi sit goldsmiths, candied-fruit makers and rope sellers still trading at their original addresses, while Via Roma and Fiumara handle the glossy end.
Genoa's 1899 covered market fills a former Augustinian cloister with some 60 stalls, plus the MOG hall added upstairs in 2022. Ligurian olives, salted anchovies and mortar-ground pesto sold by the tub. Mon–Sat 07:00–19:00, shut Sundays.
The 12th-century seafront portico shelters spice merchants, dried-fruit sellers and Carega at no. 113r, frying since 1828. Cones of salt cod, panissa and stuffed anchovies eaten standing; saffron and nut vendors either side. Most units 08:00–19:30.
Genoa's jewellery trade has held this lane since the 1400s and workshop-fronts still cut, solder and set Ligurian filigree behind the counter, with repairs done while you wait. Shops open 09:30–13:00 and 15:30–19:00 — the siesta is enforced.
Genoa's oldest flea market trades on Piazza Lavagna weekday mornings; by late afternoon the surrounding vicoli take over with frame restorers, second-hand dealers and brass-fitting sellers stocking salvage off decommissioned Ligurian ships.
An 1871 iron-and-glass arcade running from Piazza Corvetto toward De Ferrari, lined with antiquarian booksellers and print dealers; Via Roma alongside carries the luxury labels. Book and engraving stalls set up under the glass roof at weekends.
A curving medieval street that became Genoa's independent-boutique strip: linen and Ligurian-wool womenswear, hand-thrown Albisola ceramics, leather goods and perfumers, most of them single-shop owner-run operations rather than chains.
Genoa's flagship department store sits on the 1892 arcaded boulevard, four floors of Italian labels, homeware and cosmetics under a stained-glass dome. The street's porticoes shelter the rest of the mainstream chains for a block in each direction.
Liguria's largest mall was built on the old Ansaldo shipyard site west of the centre: around 80 units, a 14-screen cinema and late 21:00 closing, useful when the caruggi shops have long since shuttered for the evening.
Confectioners since 1780, still candying fruit in copper pans and crystallising violet and rose petals by hand. The Soziglia shop keeps its 1814 walnut-and-marble fittings; chocolates and quince paste come in the original printed boxes.
The record shop where Fabrizio De André bought his guitars is now a small museum-shop on the street he made famous, selling vinyl reissues, Genoese-dialect songbooks and the singer's Esteve guitar behind glass. Closed Mondays.
Trading since 1810 and generally counted Italy's oldest bookshop, with a rare-books room, Genoese local history shelves and maritime titles. Staff hunt out-of-print Ligurian editions on request; the shop sits at the Via Garibaldi end of Via Cairoli.
A pebble-cove village swallowed by the eastern city, where a handful of shops sell macramé lace, hand-painted ceramics and marble mortars for pesto, and the gelateria on the beach has worked the same corner since 1935.