Palazzo Rosso (Red Palace), Genoa

The Red Palace dates back between 1671 and 1677 and was built for the Brignole Sale brothers, who clearly had presentation in mind. With its U-shaped plan, generous loggias, and noble floors designed for ceremonial impact, this is Genoese Baroque doing exactly what it was meant to do: signal status, confidence, and money well spent. The terracotta-red façade gives the palace its name-and if that bold exterior sounds a little restrained, don’t be fooled. Inside, restraint was never part of the brief.

Today, the Red Palace forms part of the Strada Nuova Museums, after being donated to the city in 1874 by Maria Brignole Sale, Duchess of Galliera. Crucially, it was kept as a house-museum rather than reworked into a neutral gallery space. That means you’re not just looking at art on walls, but moving through rooms that still feel lived in-albeit lived in by people with very expensive taste.

Period furnishings here sit alongside an impressive collection of paintings, including works by Guercino, Veronese, Van Dyck, and Dürer, as well as leading Genoese painters like Gregorio De Ferrari and Domenico Piola.

The real show of bravura comes in the suite of frescoed “Seasons” rooms, completed in the late 17th century by De Ferrari and Piola. These spaces are often considered among the finest Baroque interiors in Genoa, and it’s easy to see why: ceilings dissolve into swirling figures, allegories drift overhead, and every surface works hard to keep your eyes moving.

Then, just when you think the palace has said everything it wants to say, the narrative jumps forward a few centuries. On the top floor, a sharply modern apartment designed by Franco Albini offers a 20th-century counterpoint-an “art lover’s flat” that quietly rewrites the rules without erasing the past.

Finish your visit on the rooftop terrace, where Genoa opens out below you in tiled roofs and narrow streets, with Via Garibaldi stretching away beneath-proof that the Red Palace still knows how to make an exit...