Show new A Z 0 street laundy y in genoa prepared by Nat national tonal society washington was D C service MOUNTAIN recently was A alake blown into bits near genoa to make way for a seaside highway between the city and Sampler darena one of its suburbs before excited genoese who crowded every vantage point tons of dynamite which had been poured into foot drilled holes leveled the rocky barrier thrusting a large part of it into the genoa harbor genoa may be considered the alma mater of the americas Amerl cas she nurtured christopher columbus in his boyhood years when he dreamed the dreams that were to tb shape his afe ufe communicated to him a love of the sea that had made her great imbued him with a dominating for the adventure that was hinted at by every strange galley and caravel that crowded her harbor and all the motley throng of bronzed seamen from distant lands who jogged bogged elbows with him on her quays and having reared the boy columbus in this atmosphere the city sent him forth to battle with true genoese spirit for his dreams until that october day in 1492 when fulfilling them he wrung a hemisphere from oblivion to add it to the mop map of the world the genoa of today Is a great mod ern city if you center your attention on its industries on its steel ships on the dwellings of its zipper upper tiers on the business of the via gentl settembre of september street and the crowds of prosperous appearing well dressed people who throng that thoroughfare morning and adrid evening to holiday proportions but genoa la Is not only a modern city the links link that tie the present to ohp times of columbus and to days long before his still hold strongly one may step on the very stones on which young christopher walked the walls that rose beside the narrow ways that his restless young feet trod still stand block after block of them and only a few steps from the present business heart of the city where beautiful modern buildings rise about the piazza de ferrari and the via vend settembre starts upon its broad straight way la Is the most important link of all the house of columbus this dwelling of domenico colombo father of the future admiral and of susanna his mother was the place in which christopher spent his early boyhood tourists must view this historic old house from the outside unless they have a special permit records all in palaces official records of the family of columbus are kept in municipal offices these offices are in one of the beautiful old palaces of the genoese nobles whatever activity you search for in genoa it seems you find in a palace the city offices are in one the port officials ciali transact their business in another the prefect looks after matters of state in a third and others are museums art galleries schools and telegraph offices you b begin eg in to wonder as you make your way from palace to palace whether the butchers and bakers and candlestick makers of genoa conduct their businesses in these sumptuous structures and to doubt that in genias palm pal lest daya there were any commoners at all to live in mere houses in the municipal palace genoa keeps mementos of her illustrious boris whether by birth or forced adoption there are portraits of the great statesman Maz mazzant zint the incomparable explorers blamco bl arco polo and columbus and sundry heroes of the crusades in a gla glass s s case rest the violin and bow of the worlds master violinist ragan int at an end of the council chamber carved from one piece of marble stands a tall pedestal surmounted Bur mounted by a bust of columbus A recess has been cut into the pedestal and fitted with an ornamental bronze door this a custodian unlocks and takes from their marble resting place genias most precious docu documents mentse three letters written by the band of christopher columbus an and d gig signed ned with his curious signature and a parchment book containing COP copies les of the documents through which various p privileges alv and titles were conferred upon him by ferdinand and isabella all the letters were written from seville to genoa two in 1502 its as the great navigator was preparing tor for his fourth and last voyage and one in 1501 after his return from the new world two are to nocolo Od erigo an important citizen of genoa who served as ambassador from the re public to the spanish court that of march 21 1502 tells of sending hla his book of privileges for safe keeping treasures Trea surca carefully guarded now the letters are framed now and protected by glass this was not always so as a the missing lower corner of one of the documents shows this fragment the custodian tells fells you was torn off years ago by a tourist who had bad been courteously permitted to examine the letter one of that in inexplicable ex breed of vandals the soulless souvenir hunter to whom ethics apparently are beside the point As soon as a privileged visitor has examined the treasures the watchful curator takes his treasures and locks them again in their queer place of safe keeping the columbus house Is some distance away but every step adds interest to the travelers stay in the city the narrow winding streets teem with an intimate mixture of wheeled traffic and pedestrians some of these ways have narrow sidewalks from which the pedestrians split spill over at intervals others have no curbs and one must needs compete for space with taxis open cabs and laden carts still other ways are mere crevasses cre between old five and six storied tenement houses far too narrow for wheeled vehicles suddenly you leave these congested streets and come out into the piazza de ferrall Ferr arl the largest of the open spaces within genias business sections one side of the square Is lined with the buildings of old genoa the walls of palaces for the most part but on the opposite side a newer genoa stands forth the carlo felice the academy of belle arts the new bourse the post office these fine structures are relatively new and form the portal to the via venti settembre when this era of n new ew construction was under way many ancient buildings were demolished part of the ground so obtained was used as sites bites for the new structures and part was left vacant and added to the piazza one of the blocks of closely packed buildings marked for destruction contained the house of columbus the identity of this edifice had long been lost but became known in 1885 1835 after which the property was purchased by tho the municipality and set aside as a monument in the house of columbus the house originally had five stories but was only one room in width it was waa hemmed in between taller buildings and was in part supported by these neighboring edifices when this group was torn down the entire house of columbus could not be left unsupported so the upper three stories were removed the two lower stories rooted roofed over now stand isolated an approximate cube of rough masonry a sort of genoese baaba and like that sacred shrine a center of world interest if not of pilgrimage inside the large wooden door the traveler finds himself in a gloomy unlighted boxlike room wholly bare it Is some borne minutes before ones eye eya can make out the details of the interior the floor Is of stone and the tha brick walls have a queer jagged surface overhead the beams and thick floor boards have the same game rough nicked appearance your tour guide explains that for a long time before it had bad been identified the house had been used as a tenement by poor families of the city and that when it came into possession of the tha municipality its walls and cel ceilings lings were en crusted with the grime of centuries scrubbing would do no good so stone cutters were put to work with chisels and mallets to cut away the eions of halt a millennium and to bring to light a surface at once clean and nearer to that of the columbian era toward the rear of the portion of the building aill standing Is a narrow winding stair of wood the front room on the second floor has two windows in the front wall Is more airy and Is better lighted than that below and was probably one of the chief apartments of the columbus family its ita walls too have been chipped to form a fresh surface and the floor reasonably clean has probably been scraped into one of the side walls has bas been set a marble slab carved into a charming base relief of the santa marla maria the ship which bore columbus on his great adventure in a corner stands a little statue of columbus the boy these are the only mementos of the great man who as aa a child lived live A here for the rest the housa Is IB bara |