Liguria: undiscoverable region

di Marco Pignotti
in Memoria e Ricerca n.s. 22 (2006), p. 39

Liguria is a region whose borders appear somewhat artificial and not actually shaped around the culture and tradition of the various communities which constitute it. As a result, historiography also seems to reflect this peculiar feature. The reason behind such strong diversity lies in the centuries – old presence of the city-state of Genoa, a city which represented for over two centuries one of the most important financial and commercial centres of the world. Its wealth and prestige have ultimately dominated and devoured the whole “ligurian” territory. Still today, modern history reveals a large gap in the study of the region as a whole – and not only of the enormous Genoese reality.