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Genoa (Italian Genova (JEN-o-vah), Genoese Zena /ZAY-nah/) is a city and a port in northern Italy, the capital of Liguria. It has a population of 700 000.
Genua was a city of the Ligures. Faithful to Rome while other Ligurian and Celtic peoples of modern N Italy stood by Carthaginians in the Second Punic War, Genoa lost its importance as a port city after the rise of Vada Sabatia, near Savona.
During the Middle Ages, Genoa was an independent and powerful republic (one of the so-called Repubbliche Marinare, the others were Venice, Pisa, and Amalfi) mainly oriented on the sea. The Genoese Republic extended over modern Liguria and S Piedmont. It had several colonies in the Mideast, in the Black Sea, in Sicily, Sardinia and Northern Africa. It possessed the island of Corsica. Famous Genoese families such as the Dorias had practically complete control of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Genoa is also the birthplace of Christopher Columbus.
The Republic became part of the French Empire until 1815, when the delegates at the Congress of Vienna sanctioned its incorporation into Piedmont (Kingdom of Sardinia.)
In July of 2001, in opposition to the G8 Economic International Summit, the Genoa Social Forum brought half a million protesters from all around Europe to Genoa.
The port of Genoa is the first in Italy. It ranks second in the Mediterranean after Marseille, France.
The Aquarium of Genoa is the largest in Europe.
Other landmarks of the city are the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) and St. Lawrence Cathedral (Cattedrale di San Lorenzo.)
