Faithful to Rome while other Ligurian and Celtic peoples of modern Northern Italy stood by Carthaginians in the Second Punic War, Genoa lost its importance as a Roman port city after the rise of Vada Sabatia, near Savona. Some noteworthy particularities of Genoa are its Etruscan foundations.
During the Middle Ages, Genoa was an independent and powerful republic (one of the so-called Repubbliche Marinare, with Venice, Pisa, and Amalfi) mainly oriented on the sea. Genoa was the most persistent rival of Venice, and like Venice its nominal republic was presided over by a doge (see Doges of Genoa). Genoa fought a series of wars with Venice starting in 1253, the last of which, the War of Chioggia (1378-81), Venice barely survived. The Siege of Chioggia marked the first strategic use of artillery in Italy, and perhaps, Europe.
Crusaders from Genoa brought home a green glass goblet long regarded in Genoa as the Holy Grail itself and thought to be emerald.
The Republic of Genoa extended over modern Liguria and Piedmont. At various times Genoa had several colonies in the Mideast, in the Aegean and the Black Sea, whence the Black Death was imported into Europe from the Genoese trading post at Kaffa (Feodosiya) in the Crimea, in Sicily and Northern Africa. It possessed the islands of Sardinia and disputed Corsica with Corsicans and France until 1768.
Famous Genoese families such as the Dorias (see also Doges of Genoa) had practically complete control of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
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It has no truly remarkable historic or architectural features, apart from the modern (circa 1960) Cristo Re alla Spezia Cathedral and the Lia Art Museum. The post office preserves some Futurist mosaics by Prampolini.
Although La Spezia, peculiar in Italy by being a modern city (almost all buildings date
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Its origins are very ancient, and it was the main town of the Giudicato of Arborea, an independent district self-governed from the 10th to 14th century.
It has a poor economy, largely focused on fishing.
