House of Christopher Columbus, Genoa

Or what is left of it.
Says the sign.
But it is not.
It is the remains of a house from that period.
No reason at all to believe CC lived here. He may have, of course.
It's very close to the Palazzo Ducale and on the edge of the old quarter, so no harm to spare it a glance.

Unique Suggestions: It really is no sweat because it doesn't cost you anything to have a look, or a bit of a sit down.

Fun Alternatives: ***UPDATE*** Golly what a fool I am. I passed by here in 2008 and this is not Christopher Columbus' house at all. That is a little 2 storey shack next door to it. I swear when I was there in 2004 there was a sign indicating this colonnade was the site. Maybe there was an arrow pointing to the right at the real place just a few steps away. And I got confused.

Anyway, this is definitely very close to what is purportedly his house. It is apparently a house from the right period. But you have to pay (6 euro?) and it is sooooo tiny. Maybe do it once. Soak up the ancient vibes.

Yeah, now almost everyone knows about it, but when I was a little child and discovered that it was really a bad piece of news!
The (supposed) house of Columbus surely is NOT the house of the great navigator who discovered the Americas!
So don't waste your time to go inside it, everything has been rebuilt in the place where (maybe) Columbus used to live, but not surely in that house!

Unique Suggestions: Just at the left of the house there is St. Andrew's Cloister, which is the only surviving part of the omonymous monastery.

The cloister was not originally located in the present site, but was moved there later, when the monastery was demolished to open the modern (horrible) square.

Fun Alternatives: Go straight to Porta Soprana, then go to Via Ravecca, or along the City Walls (Mura del Barbarossa), they are surely much more interesting!

No need to stop here, although it would only take you a matter of minutes to pass through it. Paying the few thousand lire (or few Euros now) to see this so-called "house," is like throwing the money out the window. Although, it did not cost an outrageous amount of money, I don't think anybody likes just giving it away. This "box" they call his house is nothing more than a few stones piled together to form a structure barely big enough to breath in. My favorite part is the fake "added extras" placed around to offer the supposed feeling of accuracy, but rather it just adds to your realization that once you handed your money to the thief at the entrance and walked through the tiny doorway you had been ripped off. If you could travel back in time and see Columbus living in this stone structure... that would be one thing, but for now, there is definitely nothing to see.

Unique Suggestions: If you still long to see the place that Columbus supposedly once lived... good for you. I am sure you will have plenty to laugh about later... I sure did. Just do not expect anything spectacular or the least bit exciting!