A new film is about to put this Italian port in the spotlight. Sarah Barrell offers a guide to the sights for new, and returning visitors.

This underrated port is about to become a film star. A new thriller, simply entitled “Genova” and starring Colin Firth, uses the winding alleys and gothic atmosphere of this Ligurian city to great effect and puts the spotlight on its rich 16th and 17th-century architecture.

Genoa is a city defined by its port: a working hub for vast cruise boats and cargo containers. The old town climbs directly out of this watery, industrial heart, a glorious, vertiginous mess of medieval buildings piled up against the base of the steep Apennine mountains – it’s no surprise Henry James described it as “the most winding, incoherent of cities”.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/city-slicker-a-guide-to-genoa-958338.html