Genoa

jen'o-a, a city of Italy. It is situated on the Mediterranean Sea at the foot of the Apennines. The harbor of Genoa is a semi-circular body of water, about a mile in width and of great depth. It is one of the safest anchorages in Europe. A lighthouse 300 feet high guides ships through the entrance. Viewed from the harbor, the city presents an imposing array of palaces, churches, terraced gardens, and orange groves, behind which rise ranges of hills surmounted by forts, batteries, and outworks. The interior of the city, however, is a labyrinth of narrow, dirty lanes, inaccessible to vehicles. Many of these thoroughfares, which are merely wide enough for the passage of pack mules, are lined with lofty buildings, once the residences of wealthy merchant princes. Among the principal buildings are the ducal palace, formerly occupied by the doges, and the palace of Andrea Doria, presented to him by the city in 1522. There are numerous museums and art galleries and public institutions, including a public library of 50,000 volumes. A magnificent monument has been erected to the memory of Christopher Columbus, who was born here. In the Middle Ages Genoa was a commercial rival of Venice. The city still has an extensive commerce. It exports $20,000,000 worth annually of olive oil, fruit, fish, steel goods, velvets, silks, damask, gloves, straw braid, artificial flowers, paper, soap, coral, macaroni, and marble. The population at the beginning of the twentieth century was reported at 234,710. See Florence; Italy