The one thing I wanted to see in Genova was a Caravaggio painting whose authenticity has been disputed. It is located in a former palatial house which now forms part of a museum area.

According to Google maps, it was 650 metres from our hotel. I followed the Google route which took us along some narrow and steep streets.

One of the streets appeared to be part of a red light district as there were women in short shorts or short skirts wearing very high heels standing in doorways.

This was feet away from Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Rosso, two mansions which belonged to a wealthy Genovese family whose line ran out and bequeathed their property including their art collection to the city of Genova.

The subject of the purported Caravaggio is “Ecce Homo” which refers to the passage in the Bible where Jesus after being arrested by the Romans and flagellated is presented to the crowd and Pontius Pilot says “ecce homo” or “behold the man”. This a just before Pilot washes his hands of the matter and turns Christ over for crucifixion. It is a standard part of a passion of Christ or life of Christ series in art.

There is documentation showing that in 1605 Caravaggio was commissioned to paint an Ecce Homo but nothing specifically connects the painting in Genoa to the documentation. Roberto Longhi, the art historian responsible for reviving Caravaggio’s reputation in the 20th century, thought this was the commissioned painting.

The painting itself looks Caravaggesque but it has been damaged so nothing in the handling of the paint particularly marks it as by Caravaggio.

Further it’s disturbing to note that the reed held by Jesus casts no shadow; an unlikely omission if by Caravaggio and the opaque paint in areas, especially on Pilot and his clothes, suggests at least that someone else may have added paint.

The alleged Caravaggio was in Palazzo Bianco which only opened the piano nobile to the public and we could not go into the garden area as something was going on; so there was not a lot to see. There was a Veronese.

We went across the street to look in Palazzo Rosso. That had two floors of art and some fancy views.

Above Guido Reni; below Albrecht Dürer

The Brignole Sale family mainly used Palazzo Rosso and in the 18-19th centuries did a lot of decorating:

The above mirror shows the decorated ceiling and the walls which were hung with Van Dyck paintings.

There are other pretty fancy looking residences along the street, once called Strada Nuova (New Street) now Via Garibaldi.

We had lunch in what looked like the former entry way to one of the houses, now a restaurant and apartment building.

After lunch we tried the hop on hop off bus. It has two routes, one coastal, one historic. We tried the coast (because it came first) but the audio wasn’t working so we had to figure out the sights for ourselves.

Above the main train station, below another Christopher Columbus statue

Genova has one of the biggest aquariums in Europe.

For dinner we went to Ristorante Kapperi in the old port area. As it involved crossing a major road, we took a taxi. We shared a sushi starter. I remembered to take a photo before the last bite was gone. Rice was a bit soft and the spicy tuna was not very spicy but it was a nice start.

Scott’s zuppa was more than he could finish.

I had a white fish baked with tomatoes, potatoes, olives, pine nuts and rosemary.

The dining room had wines stored all around.