What usually comes to mind when we think of Genoa are its industrial port, waterfront aquarium, and Ligurian pesto and focaccia. But it is the palaces that make up the Palazzi dei Rolli (“the Palaces of the Lists”), 42 of which have been designated UNESCO World Heritage sites, that truly make Genoa the twinkling gem of the Mediterranean.
These have been restored both by the city and by private owners such as Carlo Clavarino. Clavarino, an executive chairman at AON Insurance (and father of Air Mail’s Senior Editor, Elena Clavarino), has spent the last few years reviving the Palazzo Spinola out of a sense of “global responsibility” to the city in which he was raised but which he left 40 years ago.
