Genoa, 'La Superba'
The Rise and Fall of a Merchant Pirate Superpower
-
- 22,99 €
-
- 22,99 €
Descrizione dell’editore
Genoa has an incredible story to tell. It rose from an obscurity imposed by its harsh geography to become a merchant-pirate superpower that helped create the medieval world. It fought bitter battles with its great rival Venice and imprisoned Marco Polo, as the feuding city-states connected Europe to the glories of the East. It introduced the Black Death to Europe, led the fight against the Barbary Corsairs, bankrolled Imperial Spain, and gave the world Christopher Columbus and a host of fearless explorers. Genoa and Liguria provided the brains and the heroism behind the Risorgimento, and was the last place emigrants saw before building new lives across the Atlantic. It played host to writers and Grand Tourists, gave football to the Italians, and helped build modern Italy. Today, along with the glorious Riviera coast of Liguria, Genoa provides some of the finest places on earth to sip wine, eat pesto and enjoy spectacular views. This book brings the past to life and paints a portrait of a modern port city and region that is only now coming to terms with a past that is as bloody, fascinating and influential as any in Europe.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
English journalist Walton presents a passionate, idiosyncratic history of the Genoan city-state, glorying in the medieval piratical enterprise that brought it both fame and notoriety. Walton intersperses historical meanderings with personal experiences devoting an entire chapter, for example, to the origins of pesto and relates Genoa's rise and eventual decline as a seafaring power through anecdotal (and not always accurate) tales. Many stories are gleaned from local traditions and charming interviews. For Walton, Napoleon is less interesting than local heroes, such as Adm. Andrea Doria, the 16th-century namesake of the 20th-century ocean liner, and Giuseppe Mazzini, a leader of the 19th-century Italian unification movement. Walton narrates the finale of centuries of Genoan ship-building via accounts of the 1956 sinking of the Andrea Doria and delivers the story of the Risorgimento in his recounting of Mazzini's funeral. One of Walton's strengths is his depiction of the city itself, with its narrow alleyways and jumbled mixture of centuries of building, and like the local architecture, he slides easily from past to present and back again. This book is an unashamed celebration of Genoa, warts and all, a city that "does not get the credit its extraordinary history deserves."
