Genoa

The Lighthouse of Genoa , is the main lighthouse for the city's port. Besides being an important aid to night navigation in the vicinity, the tower... serves as a symbol for the City of Genoa, and is one of the oldest standing structures of its kind in the world. It is built on the hill of San Benigno at some little distance from the Sampierdarena neighborhood. At 249 feet it is the world's second tallest "traditional lighthouse" built of masonry. It is constructed in two square portions, each one capped by a terrace; the whole structure is crowned by a lantern from which the light is shone. The cape on which the Lanterna stands was at one time a peninsula before the nearby coastline was filled in and reshaped. To the west, it marked the entrance to the original port of Genoa, today the Porto Antico. Over time, the hill on the cape assumed the name "Capo di Faro", or "Lighthouse Cape"; it is also sometimes referred to as the cape of San Benigno, after the convent that once stood there.
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The Teatro Carlo Felice is the principal opera house of Genoa, Italy, used for performances of opera, ballet, orchestral music, and recitals. It is... located on the Piazza De Ferrari. The hall is named for Duke Carlo Felice, and dates from December 24, 1824, when the Most Excellent Department of Theatres was established. On January 31, 1825, local architect Carlo Barabino submitted his design for the opera house which was to be built on the site of the church of San Domenico. The Dominican monks were moved elsewhere without delay or ceremony, and the first stone of the new building was laid on 19 March 1826. The inaugural performance of Bellini's Bianca e Fernando took place on April 7, 1828, even though the structure and decoration were not quite finished. The auditorium accommodated an audience of about 2,500 in five tiers , a gallery above, and standing room in the orchestra pit. The acoustics were considered among the best of the time. For nearly forty years from 1853, Verdi spent the winter in Genoa, but he had few strong professional ties with the Teatro Carlo Felice.
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The Hofbräuhaus Genova was opened in 2005 near the Piazza De Ferrari and Via XX Settembre in the center of Genoa, Italy. Beers arrive directly... from Munich every week. Beers served include HB Original , HB Dunkel , HB Kindl , HB Maibock and HB StrongBock . In the right season, HB Oktoberfest and HB FestBier e HB Sommer are also served. The traditional "Maßkrüge" of HB Original and glasses of HB Weizen are accompanied by the typical Bavarian food: Schweinshaxe, Schweinsbraten, Knödel, Weißwurst, Leberkäse and Apfelstrudel.
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Palazzo Bianco is one of the main buildings of the center of Genoa, Italy. It is situated at 11, via Garibaldi . It contains the Gallery of the... White Palace, one of the greater city art galleries, and together with those of its neighbors Palazzo Rosso and Palazzo Doria Tursi, it forms part of a cluster of museums at that end of the street. Constructed between 1530 and 1540 by Luca Grimaldi, a member of one of the most important Genoese families, in 1658 the palace passed into the possession of the De Franchi family, and in 1711 it was given by Federico De Franchi, its inheritor, to Maria Durazzo Brignole-Sale, his main creditor. The new owners, between 1714 and 1716, carried out a decisive restoration of the building, adapting it to the tastes of the age. It subsequently earned the name White for the clear color of its exterior decoration. In 1899, Maria Brignole Sale, the Duchess of Galliera and the last member of the family, divested the palace to become municipal property and thus destined it to become a public gallery.
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Renzo Piano, Ufficiale OMRI is an Italian Pritzker Prize-winning architect. Architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff said of Piano's works that the... "serenity of his best buildings can almost make you believe that we live in a civilized world." In 2006, Piano was selected by TIME as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was selected as the 10th most influential person in the "Arts and Entertainment" category of the 2006 Time 100. Piano was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1937 into a family of builders. He was educated and subsequently taught at the Politecnico di Milano. He graduated from the University in 1964 and began working with experimental lightweight structures and basic shelters. From 1965 to 1970 he worked with Louis Kahn and Z.S. Makowsky. He worked together with Richard Rogers from 1971 to 1977; their most famous joint project is the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris . He also had a long collaboration with the engineer Peter Rice, with whom he shared a practice between 1977 and 1981.
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Vittorio Gassman Knight Grand Cross OMRI , popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian theatre and film actor and director. He is considered one... of the greatest Italian actors and is commonly recalled as an extremely professional, versatile, magnetic interpreter, whose long career includes both important productions as well as dozens of divertissements . He was born in Genoa to a German father, Heinrich Gassmann, and a Pisan Jewish mother, Luisa Ambron. While still very young he moved to Rome, where he attended the studies at the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica. Gassman's debut was in Milan, in 1942, with Alda Borelli in Niccodemi's Nemica , he then moved to Rome and the Teatro Eliseo joining Tino Carraro and Ernesto Calindri in a team that remained famous; with them he acted in a range of plays from bourgeois comedy to the sophisticated intellectual theatre. In 1946, he made his film debut in Preludio d'amore, the year after he appeared in five films. In 1948 he played in Riso amaro.
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Bartolomeo Pagano was an Italian motion picture actor. Before his cinema career, Pagano was a stevedore who worked at the port of Genoa. There, he... was discovered and selected to play the role of Maciste, a muscular slave, in the silent movie classic Cabiria in 1914. As the originator of this role, he went on to play the character for the next 14 years in a series of sequels. Pagano became an international star, and legally changed his name to Maciste. The actor retired from films in 1926 to marry and raised a family in his home town in Italy. Maciste died at the age of 68, and is buried on the family estate in Italy.
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Fabrizio De André was an Italian singer-songwriter. Known for his sympathies towards anarchism, libertarianism, and pacifism, he also was a... passionate atheist , and his songs often featured marginalized and rebellious people, prostitutes and knaves, and attacked the Catholic Church. Artistically active during almost 40 years, and an author of thirty studio albums, he is renowned for the quality of his lyrics, and often considered a poet. He contributed to the valorization of the languages of Italy, most notably the Ligurian, and to a lesser extent, Sardinian, Gallurese and Neapolitan. Following his early death several streets, places, parks, schools and public libraries were named after him. De André was born in Genova, welcomed into the world by Gino Marinuzzi's "Country Waltz" on the home gramophone. Twenty-five years later, Fabrizio De André would set his "Waltz for a Love" to Marinuzzi's waltz tune. When the war broke out, the De Andre' family had to seek refuge in a country farm near Revignano , in the Piemonte. Fabrizio's father, who was an Anti-fascista pursued by the police, joined the partisans.
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Ernesto Camillo Sivori, was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer. Born in Genoa, he was a pupil of Paganini. He also studied with Restano,... Giacomo Costa and Dellepiane. From 1827 Sivori began the career of a travelling virtuoso, which lasted almost without interruption until 1864. He played Mendelssohn's concerto for the first time in England in 1846, and was in England again in the seasons of 1851 and 1864. He lived for many years in Paris, and died in Genoa on February 18, 1894. He collaborated with composers of his day, including Franz Liszt. He played the first performance of Luigi Cherubini's "Requiem" in E minor. He owned many valuable instruments, including violins by Amati, Stradivari, Bergonzi, and Jean Baptiste Vuillaume. His favourite was the Vuillaume violin, which he received from Paganini. It was an impeccably close copy of Paganini's famous Cannone Guarnerius. Sivori was known to adapt many peculiar pieces such that he could play them, and many of these pieces, once thought absurd, have now become quite popular.
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Margherita Carosio was an Italian operatic soprano. She was one of the most remarkable light lyric sopranos of her generation. Her warm, expressive... and expertly produced voice is preserved in many Parlophone and Ultraphon recordings made before World War II, as well as a memorable series made for HMV in London, beginning in 1946. She was still singing leading roles in her early sixties and was considered one of the leading bel canto sopranos of her day. Carosio was born in Genoa, the daughter of a singing teacher and composer, Natale Carosio, who not only supervised her studies but launched her on a career in public concerts at 14. She once said of her father: "Everything I became I owe to him. I used to say to him: 'I am good wool, but you are an extraordinary weaver.'" She appeared in public at the extraordinarily young age of 14. In 1924, still only 16, she made her operatic debut in the taxing role of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Cavour in Novi Ligure.
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