Palazzo Lercari-Parodi (Lercari-Parodi Palace), Genoa

Lercari-Parodi Palace, also known as the Franco Lercari Palace, is Renaissance Genoa doing a victory lap. Built between 1571 and 1578 for Franco Lercari-a heavyweight banker and occasional governor of the republic-it was meant to broadcast success without needing to say a word. Its early inclusion in the Rolli lists tells you everything you need to know: this was top-tier accommodation for top-tier guests.

Start with the façade, because it doesn’t ease you in. The ground floor is wrapped in diamond-point ashlar masonry, a bold, almost armored look that reads as confidence in stone. Above it, the palace once showed off open loggias, a design we still know thanks to engravings by Peter Paul Rubens, who had a sharp eye for Genoa’s architectural bravado.

Then there’s the portal-richly decorated and guarded by two muscular telamons carved by Taddeo Carlone. Look closely, and you’ll spot the joke: both figures have broken noses, a cheeky reference to an ancestral legend involving Megollo Lercari and a very personal idea of revenge.

Inside, the palace keeps the tempo high. On the first (main) floor, frescoes by Lazzaro and Pantaleo Calvi unfold across the rooms, mixing landscapes with biblical scenes in a way that feels both cultured and carefully curated. The real scene-stealer here is Luca Cambiaso’s fresco inspired by the myth of Niobe-dramatic, elegant, and impossible to ignore.

Head upstairs, and the tone shifts again, this time to civic pride. A monumental fresco depicts Megollo Lercari founding a Genoese trading post in Trebizond, a confident statement of mercantile reach rendered in the visual language of Genoese Mannerism.

Despite all this public-facing grandeur, the palace remains private property, owned by the Parodi family since 1845. That makes its occasional opening during Rolli Days and special events feel less like routine access and more like a rare invitation. When the doors do open, you’re virtually stepping into a carefully staged performance of wealth, memory, and ambition, still playing its part centuries on...