The Landscape of Tourism in Genoa. The Porto Antico and the Levante Waterfront, two antithetical case studies between city and port

At the origin of the main transformations that have shaped the port city of Genoa in the last century and a half is often found the port, or rather the profound changes of its layout. In the alterations of the late nineteenth century such as those of the last century, in fact, the port was the scenario of big projects related to logistical and technological functioning but also to cultural-artistic-tourism regeneration processes. At first strengthened and extended, then decommissioned and delocalized, the port was the common denominator of many of the most important developments of the city of Genoa. However, its mutations did not concern only the operative areas but caused considerable repercussions also on the urban body, varying its purpose and its landscape. Through the study and comparison of two case studies – the Porto Antico project (1990s) and the Levante Waterfront project (2010s) – it is possible to acknowledge how the port can be an evolutionary and wide tool whose presence and role have totally changed extending and overturning the image and the project of the port’s infrastructure by the city.