Boccadasse is a fishing hamlet that survived inside the city of Genoa: a pocket pebble beach, pastel houses stacked around it, and small boats pulled up on the stones. The name probably comes from Bocca d'Asse, the Genoese for mouth of the donkey, after the shape of the bay; legend says Spanish fishermen settled here around the year 1000.
It joined Genoa in 1873 and kept its character. The parish church of Sant'Antonio da Padova, raised by the fishermen in the early 1700s, is hung with ship models given as thanks. Come at the end of the afternoon, buy a gelato and eat it on the rocks while the light turns the houses orange. The singer Gino Paoli lived here.
