Practical information for visiting Genoa

Italy's four national operators (TIM, Vodafone, WindTre and Iliad) cover Genoa well — it is a city of 566,000 and a major port, with the network that implies. Visitors from elsewhere in the EU can use their home data allowance under EU roaming rules; visitors from outside the EU usually find a local prepaid SIM cheaper than roaming, and there are operator shops near both main stations.

One constraint here is more severe than in any other city in this group, and it is worth planning around. The caruggi of the historic centre are alleys a couple of metres wide running between buildings six and seven storeys high, often in stone, and satellite positioning and mobile signal both degrade badly inside them. A phone map will place you on the wrong alley or stop updating entirely, which matters because this is one of the densest street networks in Europe and exactly the place a visitor most wants a map.

The practical answers are to download an offline map before going in, to navigate by the few wide streets rather than turn by turn, and to accept that being briefly lost in the old town is normal. Signal also drops in the funicular tunnels and the metro.

Public wi-fi is available in parts of the centre and the Porto Antico, and most cafes, hotels and museums provide their own.

Genoa's old town has a reputation among Italians for being rough. The accurate version: it is a dense, poor, genuinely residential quarter where ordinary urban caution applies after dark, in a way it does not in Siena or Pisa.

• At night, stay on the wide streets. Use Via San Lorenzo, Via Garibaldi and Via Balbi after dark. The alleys west of Via San Lorenzo and those running down towards the port are poorly lit and quiet, and some carry a visible street-prostitution and drug presence. By daylight the same alleys are ordinary and worth walking freely.
• Download an offline map before you enter the caruggi. Mobile signal and satellite positioning both fail between six-storey buildings on two-metre alleys, so a live map will place you on the wrong street or stop updating. Navigate by the three wide streets above, and remember the rule that always works: walk downhill to reach the water, uphill to reach Via Garibaldi.
• Watch your bag at Piazza Principe and Brignole, on crowded buses, and in the Aquarium queue at the Porto Antico. Those four places account for most pickpocketing in the city.
• Wear shoes with grip. The old town is worn stone and slate on a slope, and Genoa takes about 1,040 mm of rain a year in heavy bursts. Falls are the most likely way a visitor gets hurt here.
• Take flood warnings literally. The Polcevera and Bisagno run canalised beneath the city and have a history of flash flooding in intense autumn downpours. If an alert is issued, stay out of the valley bottoms and underpasses.
• Do not drive into the centre, and do not assume waterfront on a map is public: large stretches are a working commercial port.

The Coast Guard is 1530, which matters more here than inland. For anything else, 112.

Genoa has major hospitals and a university medical school serving the whole of Liguria. Visitors from the EU carrying a valid EHIC or GHIC card can use public healthcare on the same terms as Italian residents; visitors from elsewhere should carry travel health insurance, because treatment is billed directly.

Pharmacies are plentiful and marked with a green cross, with duty rotas for nights and holidays posted on the doors of those closed. For anything urgent, 112 reaches medical services.

Three points specific to Genoa.

• The gradient is relentless and it is the main consideration. This is a city built up a slope with essentially no flat ground, and a day in it involves far more climbing than the distances suggest. The compensation is that the ascents are mechanised: AMT's funiculars and public lifts are ordinary transport, and using them rather than walking up is the sensible choice for anyone with a heart condition, a mobility limitation or a knee problem.
• The old town's surfaces. Worn stone and slate on a slope, in a city that gets around 1,040 mm of rain a year in heavy bursts, is a slip hazard. Footwear with grip matters more here than anywhere else in this region.
• The climate is the mildest of any city in this group, averaging about 20°C by day and 14°C at night across the year, so heat stress is less of an issue than in Milan, Bologna or Pisa even in July and August — the sea moderates both ends. What it trades that for is humidity and sudden heavy rain.

Emergency number: 112, free from any phone. It is Italy's single emergency number — medical emergencies, the Carabinieri and emergencies generally — and it routes the call to the right service.

Police: 113. Fire brigade: 115. Financial Guard (Guardia di Finanza): 117. Coast Guard: 1530 — relevant here in a way it is not inland, because Genoa is a working port and much of what a visitor does is on or beside water.

Public transport — buses, the metro, the funiculars and the public lifts — is all run by AMT (Azienda Mobilità e Trasporti), which is the body to approach about tickets, passes and the vertical network.

Visitor information is published by the city's own tourism service, which is also where the Saturday Rolli palace tours and the list of which palaces are open are kept up to date. That listing is genuinely worth checking before a trip, because most of the 42 inscribed palaces are private.

If you are lost in the old town — which is common and not a cause for alarm — mobile signal and satellite positioning both fail in the caruggi. Walk downhill to reach the water or uphill to reach Via Garibaldi; both are unmistakable once you hit them, and either orients you immediately.