Access GenovaStriped churches, painted facades, and public lifts up to the rooftops.
Roofs, domes and cranes from the Belvedere Montaldo at Castelletto
THE TERRACE OVER THE OLD TOWN

Spianata di Castelletto

The terrace where a fortress once stood, reached by a wooden-panelled public lift from the street below, with the whole old town, its domes and the port laid out under the railing.

Benjamin Smith, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
IWhat you are looking at

Spianata di Castelletto

The brick-paved salita climbing to the Spianata di Castelletto, with its handrails
The brick-paved salita climbing to the Spianata di Castelletto, with its handrailsSuperchilum, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
  1. IThe belvedereA long railed terrace, formally the Belvedere Luigi Montaldo, above the roofs of the old town
  2. IIThe lift from Piazza del PortelloA public lift that rises inside the hill and opens straight onto the terrace
  3. IIIThe Liberty cabinsRebuilt in 2020 to the original early-twentieth-century drawings, panelled in pine
  4. IVCaproni's versesLines by the poet Giorgio Caproni about this lift, set on a plaque in its entrance tunnel
  5. VThe garden and caféPalms, benches and a kiosk along the terrace, used by the neighbourhood all day
  6. VIThe saliteStepped lanes running down from the terrace into the streets below, for the walk back
IIIn full

The sight in detail

Why it matters

Genoa is a city you understand from above, and this is the easiest above to reach. The terrace sits directly over the old town, so the view is not a distant panorama but a plan: the roofs of the alleys, the striped tower of the cathedral, the domes, the cranes, and the sea closing it off.

The bus stop at Castelletto, the terrace behind the trees
The bus stop at Castelletto, the terrace behind the treesPanek, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The name means little castle, and it is literal. A fortress stood on this spur from at least the tenth century, controlling the city below; it was pulled down in the late nineteenth century, and the flat ground it left became the belvedere.

What makes it particular is how you arrive. A public lift, part of the ordinary transport system rather than a tourist ride, climbs from Piazza del Portello inside the hill and opens through a doorway straight onto the terrace. Locals use it to get home with the shopping.

The terrace also explains the city's transport. Genoa runs public lifts, funiculars and a rack railway because the difference between sea level and the first ridge is a few hundred metres over a very short horizontal distance. Riding one of them is not a novelty here; it is how people get home.

The lift

The upper stretch of the salita to Castelletto, between plastered walls
The upper stretch of the salita to Castelletto, between plastered wallsPanek, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Castelletto lift is the most famous of Genoa's public lifts and has been running since the early twentieth century. In 2020 the whole installation was renewed, and the cabins were rebuilt to the original drawings, panelled in pine in the Liberty style.

It is reached through a tunnel from the square, and the poet Giorgio Caproni, who grew up in this city, wrote verses about it that are reproduced on a plaque in that tunnel — a lift to paradise, he called it, which is the kind of claim only a Genoese would make about municipal transport.

A single urban ticket covers it, the same one used on the buses and the metro, and it runs from early morning to late evening. The ride takes well under a minute.

What you actually see

A pink and cream house on the climb to the Spianata di Castelletto
A pink and cream house on the climb to the Spianata di CastellettoPanek, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Step out and the city is below you at an angle that photographs badly and reads beautifully. Immediately under the railing are the roofs of the old town, slate and tile, with washing lines and roof terraces; beyond them the belfries and the green dome of the cathedral; then the harbour, the mole and the sea.

To the west the Lanterna stands out on its rock. To the east the hills climb behind the nineteenth-century city, with the walls and forts along the ridge above them.

The terrace itself is a neighbourhood space: palms in tubs, benches along the railing, a kiosk, and children on bicycles in the late afternoon. It is not a viewpoint people drive to; it is a piece of the quarter that happens to have a view.

A street in Castelletto looking down toward the sea between the blocks
A street in Castelletto looking down toward the sea between the blocksPanek, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Behind the terrace the streets of Castelletto run off along the hillside, lined with the confident apartment buildings of the late nineteenth century, some by architects who also built the city's castles and villas.

Pick out four things and the geography falls into place: the Lanterna to the west, the container cranes beyond it, the green dome of the cathedral almost directly below, and the line of the ridge behind you with its forts. Everything else in the city hangs off those four points.

Walking down

A corner in Castelletto, the hillside streets stepping down behind
A corner in Castelletto, the hillside streets stepping down behindPanek, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The walk back into the centre is half the pleasure. Stepped lanes — salite — drop from the terrace into the streets above Via Garibaldi, passing garden walls, shrines set into corners and the back doors of palaces.

The most direct is the Salita alla Spianata di Castelletto, which comes out near Largo della Zecca. It is steep and paved with brick and stone, and it is one of the best short walks in the city.

Doing it in the other direction, upward on foot, is a real climb of about ten minutes. Most people take the lift up and walk down, which is the sensible order.

Roofs of the old town from the Belvedere Montaldo, with the port and the cranes beyond
Roofs of the old town from the Belvedere Montaldo, with the port and the cranes beyondBenjamin Smith, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

If you would rather not walk, the lift runs down as well, and buses pass along the Circonvallazione a Monte, the boulevard that curves along the hillside behind the terrace with views of its own.

How to visit

Half an hour at the terrace, longer if you sit. There is nothing to pay beyond the transport ticket and nothing to book.

Come at the end of the afternoon: the sun moves round to light the old town and the sea, and the terrace fills with people who live here.

Sunset over the port and the roofs, from the Belvedere Luigi Montaldo
Sunset over the port and the roofs, from the Belvedere Luigi MontaldoKC2001, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

It pairs naturally with the funicular up to the Righi, which starts a few minutes away and goes much higher, if you want the whole city rather than the old town alone.

Honest notes

The view is over roofs and port rather than over a picturesque skyline; people expecting a Tuscan panorama sometimes find it industrial. That is Genoa, and the port is the point.

The lift can shut for maintenance, and there are stairs at the top end of the tunnel.

The old town from the Belvedere Montaldo on a grey afternoon
The old town from the Belvedere Montaldo on a grey afternoonBenjamin Smith, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The second Castelletto lift, the Ponente one built in 1929, is a different and less useful machine, reached through a road tunnel; the one you want is the Levante lift from Piazza del Portello.

IIIA few steps away

Where to go next