Above Genoa: A Short Hike Over A Vertical City

Genoa is a city that reveals itself vertically. Streets climb, elevators disappear into hillsides, and funiculars pull you from the dense medieval center up to quieter neighborhoods perched above the port.

We spent four days in Genoa in mid-March. The main post is here: Genoa Weekend. One highlight of the visit was a short hike that stitched together two of Genoa’s hillside transport lines—the Granarola and the Righi funiculars—to give one of the best views of the city.

   

Left: View from top of Granarola Funicular station in Genoa, Italy.
Center left: The Granarola Funicular car, bottom station.
Center right: The Righi Funicular arrives in the top station.

Right: Tracks for this hike between Granarola and Righi top stations.

Overview

Length: ~5.6 km
Duration: ~1.5 hours (top of funicular to top of funicular)
Elevation gain: ~221 m
Location: Genoa, Italy

Notes

On a gray Sunday morning,  we took the Granarolo funicular up into the hills above the city. The original idea was simple: ride up, wander a bit, and then take the same funicular back down.

Instead, we ended up walking along hillside roads and trails across the ridge until we reached the Righi funicular, which we used to descend back toward the center. Most of the walking time was spent on the percorso ginnico (gymnastic course) as labeled on maps. It’s approximately an isoline that leads to the Righi top station.

The walk itself isn’t dramatic in the Alpine sense. There are houses, gardens, small streets, and patches of trail. But the perspective is what makes it memorable.

At one moment you feel like you are in a quiet hillside village. Then you turn a corner, and the entire city appears below you—the port, the old center, and the Ligurian Sea beyond.

Genoa looks almost like a relief map from above.

After descending on the Righi funicular, we returned to the center for one lunch, coffee, and something sweet before catching the train home.

It was a fitting end to a trip that combined wandering streets, riding strange elevators, and briefly escaping the city by walking above it all.
 

  

Left: Granarola Funicular top station, Genoa Italy.
Center: Gardens above Genoa center.

Right: The Righi Funicular descending into the city.

   

Left and center left: Percorso Ginnico in Parco delle Mura above Genoa.

Center right: A trail above Genoa.

Right: Salita di Granarola.

  

Left: In the hills above Genoa, a polveriera (gun powder storage).

Center: Trail Genoa in Parco delle Mura

Right: View northwest toward Santuario di Nostra Signora della Guardia.