Genoa
How to get around Genoa
A city with no flat ground needs machinery
Genoa's transport is unlike any other Italian city's because the terrain allows nothing conventional. AMT (Azienda Mobilità e Trasporti) runs an integrated network that includes buses, a metro of eight stations over 7.1 kilometres, and — the distinctive part — funiculars and public lifts that climb the slope behind the centre. The Zecca–Righi and Sant'Anna funiculars connect directly to metro stations at Darsena and De Ferrari.
Treat the funiculars and lifts as ordinary transport rather than as rides. In a city stacked up a hillside they are the equivalent of a bus route, and they are how residents get home. Fares are published by AMT rather than quoted here.
The old town is walking only
The historic centre is a network of caruggi, many far too narrow for any vehicle, and the only way through it is on foot. This is the part visitors underestimate: it is among the densest street networks in Europe, a phone map struggles between six-storey buildings, and the alleys are genuinely disorienting. Walk it in daylight, accept getting lost, and use the larger streets — Via Garibaldi, Via San Lorenzo, Via Balbi — as the anchors to navigate back to.
Two main stations, and which one
Genoa has two principal stations and getting the wrong one costs time: Genova Piazza Principe is west, near the port and the Palazzo Reale end of the centre, and Genova Brignole is east, near the modern centre. Both are served by the metro. Check which your train actually calls at and which is nearer your accommodation, because the two are a good 2 kilometres apart along a linear city.
Genoa as the Riviera's rail hub
This is the practical argument for the city. Genoa is the junction for the entire Ligurian coast in both directions, so Portofino, the Cinque Terre and the western Riviera are all short train journeys. Combined with accommodation at a fraction of coastal prices, that makes basing yourself in Genoa and travelling out materially better than the reverse.
Driving
Do not. Genoa's road network is a series of viaducts and tunnels threaded through valleys with no spare capacity, the old town is impenetrable by car, and parking on a slope this steep is scarce and expensive. The city is also a reminder of how fragile that network is: the collapse of the Morandi bridge over the Polcevera in 2018 severed the main link west.
Verified against Visit Genoa — the city's official tourism site, October 2026.
Connections from Genoa
How easily, and at what cost, can you combine the region’s main destinations?
| Route | Best option | One-way time | Travel Smart take |
|---|---|---|---|
| Genoa and Alassio | Traininexpensive | ~1 hr 4 min–1 hr 22 min scheduled service | Better as a separate stay than a day trip. |
| Genoa and Cinque Terre Region | Traininexpensive | ~1 hr 1 min–2 hr 13 min scheduled service | Better as a separate stay than a day trip. |
| Genoa and Finale Ligure | Traininexpensive | ~43–48 min scheduled service | Possible in a day, but it takes most of one. |
| Genoa and La Spezia | Traininexpensive | ~1 hr 1 min–1 hr 34 min scheduled service | Possible in a day, but it takes most of one. |
| Genoa and Portofino | Train and local bus, or carmoderate cost | ~40 min by road | Excellent day-trip connection. Genoa works well as a base for Portofino. |
Cost compares the options for each route rather than quoting a fare: inexpensive means the price is not a factor in planning, moderate cost means a real line in the budget, and the expensive option is one worth weighing against the alternative. Fares change from year to year; the ranking between them does not.
Understanding the shape before the network
Genoa is about 30 kilometres long and 10 kilometres deep, and nothing about its transport makes sense until that is clear. There is no centre to radiate from in the usual way: the city is a line along a coast with valleys running inland off it, so routes are either along the shore or up a slope, and almost never across.
The metro, which is small
The Genoa metro has eight stations over 7.1 km and is operated by AMT. It is useful rather than comprehensive — it runs from Brignole through the centre to the Polcevera valley — and it is best understood as one line among several modes rather than the backbone a visitor might expect.
Funiculars and public lifts
These are the part worth knowing about. Because the city climbs immediately behind the centre, AMT's network includes funicular railways and public lifts built into the hillside, and they are integrated into the ordinary fare system. The Zecca–Righi funicular connects to the metro at Darsena and the Sant'Anna funicular to De Ferrari. Riding one to the top and walking back down through the upper city is also, incidentally, the cheapest good view in Genoa.
On foot in the caruggi
The historic centre has to be walked, and it needs a different approach from other Italian cities. The alleys are narrow enough to lose satellite signal, dense enough that a route is hard to hold, and steep in places. The practical method is to navigate by the few wide streets rather than by turn-by-turn directions: Via San Lorenzo from the cathedral to the water, Via Garibaldi along the top, Via Balbi to the west. Everything else is explored rather than traversed.
The two stations
Piazza Principe (west, by the port) and Brignole (east, by the modern centre) are both main-line stations roughly 2 km apart. Trains along the coast generally call at both, but not all services do, and arriving at the wrong end of a linear city is the most common avoidable mistake here.
Reaching the coast
From either station the Riviera is close in both directions, with frequent regional services. Nervi, within the municipality itself, is reachable on local transport and has the seafront promenade the city centre lacks.