Genoa

Genoa is the great Italian city that almost nobody puts on their list, which is precisely why it rewards the people who do. For centuries it was one of the richest, most powerful maritime republics in the world, and it still wears that history in its grand palaces and its vast medieval old town, one of the largest in Europe. But Genoa never polished itself for tourists. It is a real, gritty, working port, proud and a little rough at the edges, and it offers something increasingly rare: a major Italian city, right on the sea, that you can actually afford.