Experts' Choice Award Piazza San Matteo
What the experts agree on
This medieval square showcases the Doria family's 500-year power base, dominated by a striking 12th-century church with bold black-and-white stripes, ornate French Gothic portal carvings, and guardian stone lions—a compact window into Genoa's
“The well-preserved Piazza San Matteo was, for 500 years, the seat of the Doria family, which ruled Genoa and much of Liguria from the 16th to the 18th century.”
– Fodor's
Frommer's "The austerity of this black-and-white-striped 12th-century structure is enlivened ever so slightly by the fanciful French Gothic carvings around the portal and the presence of two stone lions." Full review
