Genoa Food Tours
Genoa is where Ligurian food comes from: pesto pounded in Prà, focaccia and focaccia di Recco, farinata baked in copper pans, trofie and pansoti, and the anchovies and stockfish of a great port, tasted through the caruggi, the medieval lanes, and the Mercato Orientale. Compare the top-rated Genoa food experiences below, then read our notes.
Food tours in Genoa
Formats: food and wine walking tours of the caruggi and the Mercato Orientale with tastings; pesto workshops with a mortar; street-food crawls; aperitivo evenings.
What to eat: focaccia genovese and focaccia di Recco, farinata, pesto with trofie, pansoti with walnut sauce, cima, fried seafood, and a glass of Ligurian white.
The caruggi and the market
Genoa’s food lives in the caruggi, the tall, narrow medieval lanes of one of Europe’s largest old towns, and at the Mercato Orientale, its covered market. A food tour threads the bakeries pulling focaccia from the oven, the shops frying farinata (the chickpea pancake) in copper pans, the friggitorie selling fried seafood in paper, and the cellars pouring Ligurian white. It is a greedy, unpolished walk through a working city, not a tourist set-piece.
The dishes
Beyond pesto, Genoa gives you focaccia di Recco, two paper-thin sheets of dough around molten stracchino cheese; pansoti, herb ravioli under a walnut sauce; cima, cold stuffed veal; and the salt cod and anchovies of a seafaring city. The pesto itself is at its best in the western district of Prà, where the sweet basil grows, and a workshop there lets you grind it in the mortar the proper way.
How to do it
Food tours run two to three hours, market to old town, six to eight tastings with wine, in small groups; a morning tour maps the city’s food for the rest of your stay. Genoa pairs naturally with the Cinque Terre a short train ride away – city food one day, cliffs and boats the next.
How we choose
We list only experiences with a strong rating over a meaningful number of reviews and free cancellation where available, and we favour small-group and family-run hosts. FindEatLocal earns a commission when you book through GetYourGuide or Viator links on this page; it doesn’t change the price you pay. More about how we choose.
FAQ about Genoa Food Tours
Frequently asked questions
Why Genoa for food?
Because it is the birthplace of pesto and focaccia and a real, un-touristy food city, its market and old-town lanes full of bakeries, fried-food shops and cellars.
What is focaccia di Recco?
A Ligurian speciality from the town of Recco: two thin sheets of unleavened dough enclosing soft stracchino cheese, baked until blistered - quite different from ordinary focaccia.
Where is the best pesto in Genoa?
Traditionally from Prà in the city’s west, where the prized sweet basil is grown; a pesto workshop there grinds it in the marble mortar.
Is Genoa worth a food stop?
Very; it is the source of Ligurian cooking and a genuine, affordable food city, ideal paired with the Cinque Terre nearby.