An important edition, the fall 2025 edition of Rolli Days, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 20 and Sunday, Sept. 21, the event by which Genoa’s historic palaces open their doors to the public through guided tours curated by scientific popularizers and cultural professionals trained specifically for the occasion. This year’s itinerary, dedicated to the “Lords of the Sea,” was devoted to the theme of the maritime economy, a decisive element in the development of the Republic of Genoa between the 16th and 17th centuries. The choice of palaces to visit took into account not only the commissioning families, closely linked to trade routes and financial activities on the sea, but also the presence of frescoes and works of art with a maritime theme, offering an iconographic reading consistent with the topic.
The exhibition itinerary had a highlight in a major pictorial work. Indeed, for the occasion, the Portrait of Lamba Doria by Gioacchino Assereto (Genoa, 1600 - 1649), one of the greatest interpreters of the Genoese Baroque, was exhibited inside Palazzo Doria Lamba. The rarely seen work depicts one of the most famous figures in the city’s history, the 1298 victor of the Battle of Curzola that established Genoese dominance over rival Venice. The decision to place this painting at the center of the event reiterates the intention to enhance the historical memory of the Republic’s maritime supremacy and to link it to the exceptional architectural heritage of the Rolli.
Indeed, with this edition, Genoa wanted to explore the theme of Ligurian aristocrats who in the so-called “century of the Genoese” (and beyond) consolidated a European supremacy through financial speculation, merchant investments and control of Mediterranean and oceanic routes. Doria, Grimaldi, Pallavicino and Centurione were some of the most influential families, able to transform accumulated wealth into political and military power, and to affect continental balances with a force that went far beyond the city’s borders.
What’s more, the event is held in conjunction with the Boat Show, an event that attracts enthusiasts, operators and visitors from all over Italy and abroad every year, and this year is scheduled for September 18-23. The program also included an extraordinary evening opening of Via Garibaldi, the historic “Via Aurea” that concentrates some of the most prestigious buildings in the system. On Saturday, September 20, from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., visitors had access without reservations to some of the mansions involved, guided again by science popularizers. The interiors were enriched by light installations and musical moments, designed to create an evocative atmosphere during the aperitif hours.
“From each edition of Rolli Days,” commented Giacomo Montanari, culture alderman of the City of Genoa and art historian, this morning, “some novelty emerges. For years we happened to discover new works, to attribute some of them, to read iconographies that were not yet known even to scholars. Fortunately, with time, publications have been produced, paths of shared knowledge designed, which have put new data in the hands of all cultural workers to be able to know the city in depth. Today we can say that-alongside the pioneering studies of Ennio Poleggi, Ezia Gavazza, Lauro Magnani, and Piero Boccardo-the Rolli Days have helped foster both knowledge and restoration of many sites. And to involve in this journey a few million visitors and a few thousand young people under 35 as science outreach staff. Yesterday evening, in an edition of Rolli Days where a resounding privately owned Baroque masterpiece such as the Lamba Doria portrait was being exhibited to the public for the first time without restrictions, we also ’dared’ to propose evening tours in Via Garibaldi, with the possibility of having an aperitif in the most beautiful Renaissance street in the World. And - further unscrupulousness - in that same street we had about 2,000 young people dancing. Today I had to read, between smiles and sorrow, that having aperitivo and music in Via Garibaldi would be ’heretical’ or ’blasphemous.’ Thus ideas take root such as classical versus electronic/contemporary music; culture versus entertainment, etc. Unnecessary, indeed, harmful juxtapositions. Either we learn to be confident enough about the content and value of things that we can find hybrid ways to speak to the plurality of our society, or we will end up with purists entrenched in an inaccessible Fort Alamo and without the possibility of making shared values that are foundational to a democratic society. I just feel like saying thank you to all the people who continue to enjoy Genoa’s monumental heritage, to be guided by science popularizers, with care and respect, along paths of knowledge. Which - this yes - is always ’heretical’: it does not conform, it does not flatten, but always proposes new points of view. For those who want to look.”
For years, Rolli Days has not only been a moment of promotion, but an opportunity for high scientific popularization. The training of the popularizers involved, the attention to the historical and social context of the aristocratic families, and the choice of a specific theme that links the works on display and the palaces visited, help to return a coherent and in-depth narrative of the city. Rolli Days thus represents a model of how a cultural heritage can be made accessible and understandable to a wide audience without sacrificing the quality of research and historical interpretation.
In this interweaving of sea, history and art lies the very essence of Genoa. The Boat Show, an international showcase of shipbuilding and yachting, is complemented by the evocation of a past in which the sea was not only a source of economic wealth, but also of prestige and identity. The extraordinary opening of the Palazzi dei Rolli, with their frescoes, their architecture and the stories of the families who inhabited them, thus becomes an integral part of a narrative that from the contemporary nautical world leads back in time to the centuries when the city dominated the Mediterranean and laid down the law in international trade.
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| From baroque splendor to oceanic routes: the Rolli Days 2025 tells the story of Genoa on the sea |
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