Strada Nuova (Via Garibaldi) and the Palazzi dei Rolli

Strada Nuova, now Via Garibaldi, was laid out from the 1550s in the Centro Storico of Genoa as a new, straight street for the city's leading banking and merchant families. Until then Genoese palaces were squeezed into narrow medieval lanes; the new street allowed the oligarchy that financed European monarchs to build grand residences side by side, designed by architects such as Galeazzo Alessi, Bernardino Cantone and Giovanni Ponzello. The palaces belonged to the Rolli system, official lists, or rolli, of the finest private residences that the Republic used to lodge state visitors, from popes to kings and ambassadors, by lottery, so that no single family monopolised the honour. In 2006 Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Along the street, the facades show Renaissance restraint and Mannerist and Baroque richness, and many open onto atria, loggias, courtyards and terraced gardens that climb the slope behind. Three of the palaces, Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Doria-Tursi, now form the Strada Nuova museums, holding major collections of paintings, decorative arts and, in Palazzo Doria-Tursi, the violin of Niccolo Paganini. Other palaces remain banks, offices or private property, and several open to the public only during the Rolli Days weekends, held in 2026 on 16-18 October, when interiors and courtyards not normally accessible can be visited. The street has been repeatedly restored, and conservation of frescoed ceilings and stonework continues. The curatorial character is that of an open-air architectural museum: the experience is chronological along the street and thematic within the individual museums. A walk along Via Garibaldi gives a concentrated view of the wealth that made Genoa one of the great financial centres of the 16th and 17th centuries, and it connects naturally to Piazza Fontane Marose and the Palazzo Ducale area, making it a core stop for visitors interested in the Republic's golden age.