Piazza De Ferrari (Ferrari Square), Genoa (must see)

This place's story starts with the man whose name ended up on Genoa’s biggest calling card, Raffaele Luigi De Ferrari. He wasn’t just wealthy-he was spectacularly so. Prince of Lucedio, Duke of Galliera, senator of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Grand Officer of the Order of Italy… and that’s just the short list of his titles. In 1837, De Ferrari even managed to acquire properties once handed out by Napoleon I, via Prince Oscar of Sweden. Indeed, when your résumé reads like that, having the main square of Genoa named after you feels less like flattery and more like inevitability.

Ferrari Square itself is anything but modest. Spreading across roughly 120,000 square feet, it works as Genoa’s grand urban stage. At its center sits a massive bronze fountain completed in 1936, designed by Giuseppe Crosa di Vergagni-a piece that manages to be both monumental and unapologetically dramatic, very much in keeping with the square’s personality...

This space, however, didn’t always look the way it does now. In 1814, the Church of San Domenico was demolished to make room for the Carlo Felice Theater, designed by Carlo Barabino and completed in 1827. A few years later, in 1831, a two-story Linguistic Academy appeared nearby. The square officially became Ferrari Square in 1877-one year after De Ferrari’s death-because timing, apparently, matters even in commemoration. By 1893, Giuseppe Garibaldi, a hero of the Italian revolution, appeared here on horseback in bronze form in front of the theater.

As the late 19th and early 20th centuries rolled in, the square filled out with confident, eclectic architecture. The New Bourse Palace opened in 1912, followed by the Italian Credit Palace in 1914, and the Liguria Region Palace in 1923-each one keen to make its presence felt.

And then there are the veterans. The Doge's Palace, dating back to the 13th century and restored in 1992, now serves as a museum and cultural hub. Nearby stand the Giulio Pallavicini Palace from 1586 and the Agostino Spinola Palace, built in the 18th century and now home to a bank. Together, they turn Ferrari Square into a crash course in Genoa’s favorite subject: power, displayed loudly and over several centuries.