About Savona

This Ligurian seaport was once home to Christopher Columbus. Behind Savona’s sprawling port is a quaint medieval center with characteristically narrow streets and the Cattedrale di Nostra Signora Assunta, a Baroque cathedral that survived a 16th-century Genoese attack on the city. Another notable Savona historic attraction is the Sistine Chapel (not to be confused with the world-famous Sistine Chapel in Rome), erected by Pope Sixtus IV who was born in Savona and wanted a mausoleum for his parents, which can be found behind the cathedral. Its ceiling was painted by Paolo Geralamo Brusco (not Michelangelo).