Genoa

  The Italian Riviera boasts such mesmerizing places as Portofino and the Cinque Terre with its stunning cliff-side towns, beaches, and baby blue seas, but the city of Genoa has a reputation for being a rough and tumble port. It hasn’t always been this way: the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens who spent most of …

The Italian city of Genoa is not recognized for its beauty. Its massive industrial port blocks views of the Mediterranean, and I wouldn’t recommend getting too close: the strong stench of fish and diesel is enough to keep even old salty dogs onshore. Before I went to Genoa, a friend described it to me as …