In the grand Genovese tradition of free art exhibits we found our favorite one yet. This exhibit was called Francesco Leoni e il fotogiornalismo: Istantanee per una storia (Francesco Leoni and photo journalism: Snapshots of history). The main reason we wanted to see this exhibit was because it was a chance to get inside the very ornately constructed Borsa building, the former stock exchange turned office building that is normally closed to the public.

The building’s main rotunda with its marble columns and stained glass window rosettes was nice, but it was the exhibit itself that stole the show. On display were well over 100 photographs spanning the career of one man, Francesco Leoni, who had an incredible knack for capturing the sentiment of the scenes he shot. His career began in the mid 1930s and continued all the way into the late 1990s. He was there for all the significant events and regular days in Genova during that time.

The most interesting part of his photography was his early work during fascist times and World War II. A picture of Mussolini saluting on top of 30 meter tall concrete podium built in the shape of a ship’s helm and street scenes from the duration of World War II from British bombing, to Nazi occupation, to American liberation brought a sense of immediacy to those times that no history text book ever had.

There were lots of fun photos too! There was a whole series of photos of Hollywood celebrities from the 1950s and 1960s in Portofino. The likes of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were the original “jet setters.” Then there were the pictures of everyday life around the city: soccer games, street vendors, and construction projects. Our favorite was a picture 1965 with a woman selling chestnuts in front of what is now our local deli.

To see more photos, go to this link, then open the pdf file at the bottom.

Another one of the free art exhibits we’ve found in Genova was an Art Nouveau display housed discretely in two carpeted rooms of an office building. Finding the location was half the fun because the “road” the building is on is basically suspended in the air, connecting a row of office buildings that sit between two hills. The exhibit was an impressive collection of art nouveau style posters from the late 1800s used to advertise things like concerts and events. The best known artist in the collection (at least from what we know) was Alfons Mucha, who has a whole museum dedicated to him in Prague.

Genova has close to 30 museums ranging from centuries old historic palaces to a modern acquarium. An annual museum card allows entry into 20 of them for free, and many more for a discount. It’s a good deal at 35 Euros, and an even better deal for students, which we passed for, at 20 Euros.

With museum card in hand, we went to our first Genovese museum, Museo dell’Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti. It’s a fine art museum featuring work by Genovese artists and other artists who spent time in Liguria from about the 1400s to the early 1900s.

The museum is housed on the third floor of a relatively nondescript palace in Piazza de Ferrari, the central plaza in Genova. When we arrived at the third floor entrance, the guard had to unlock the front door for us and call down to the ticket taker to check our passes because, apparently, we were the only visitors that afternoon. Having a museum to yourself really improves the experience, particularly in a country where it’s entirely possible that even one other visitor would find the need to stand on our heels to admire the same painting at the same time as us.

The cavernous white rooms with muted sunlight made a nice setting for the large paintings of bibical scenes and the Ligurian coast hanging from the walls and partitians. After a pleasant experience at Belle Arti we’re ready to tackle the rest of Genova’s museums. One down, 28 more to go…