Wender·Vista
Genoa
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileItaly
on the Ligurian coast, west of Cinque Terre

Genoa

— — a stone city stacked against the sea.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“A port pressed up against the mountains, with a medieval centre that runs uphill in shadow. The caruggi are narrower than the buildings are tall; the harbour smells of basil and salt. La Lanterna has marked the entrance since 1543. Walk far enough up any alley and the city opens into a piazza with a fountain nobody is sitting near.

from the studio
Genoa
— bring it home

Genoa, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Genoa

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Genoa stretches thirty kilometres along the Ligurian coast where the Apennines meet the sea. The historic centre, one of the largest in Europe at about 113 hectares, climbs the slope from the old port through a dense weave of caruggi, the narrow alleys that hold the city together. UNESCO inscribed the Strade Nuove and the system of forty-two Palazzi dei Rolli in 2006 for their role as the Republic of Genoa's diplomatic guesthouses from the sixteenth century. The city proper holds about 560,000 residents; the port remains the largest in Italy by container tonnage.

— the stone

Black slate and white marble alternate on the facades of the Palazzi dei Rolli along Via Garibaldi and Via Balbi, a pattern the Genoese borrowed from their cathedral. San Lorenzo, begun in the twelfth century, carries the same banded stripes across the Romanesque-Gothic facade and holds a British shell from 1941 that failed to detonate. La Lanterna, the city's lighthouse, was rebuilt in 1543 to 77 metres and remained the world's tallest until the nineteenth century. Stone runs through the place the way water runs through Venice.

— the visit

Trains arrive at Piazza Principe from Milan in ninety minutes and from Nice in three hours. The Aquarium and the Porto Antico, redesigned by Renzo Piano for the 1992 Columbus quincentenary, sit a ten-minute walk east. Most of the Rolli palaces open one weekend each May during the Rolli Days; the rest of the year, Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco, and Palazzo Doria-Tursi hold the municipal collections. Focaccia is sold by weight in the morning; pesto comes with trenette or trofie.

— informed by Visit Genoa
— where
Italy · Genoa, Liguria
— elevation
20 m · 66 ft
— position
44.4056° N · 8.9463° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
1 km S
Porto Antico
old harbour
2 km W
La Lanterna
lighthouse
at the lake
Via Garibaldi
Rolli street
at the lake
San Lorenzo Cathedral
Romanesque cathedral
4 km E
Boccadasse
fishing village
N
Genoa
Porto Antico
La Lanterna
Via Garibaldi
San Lorenzo Cathedral
Boccadasse
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Genoa — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

The narrow medieval alleys that thread the old town, often only two metres wide between buildings four or five storeys tall. The network covers roughly 113 hectares, one of the largest medieval centres in Europe.

A registered list of forty-two private palaces along Via Garibaldi and Via Balbi that the Republic of Genoa used as official guesthouses for visiting dignitaries from 1576. UNESCO inscribed them in 2006.

La Lanterna was rebuilt in its current form in 1543 to a height of 77 metres. It served as the world's tallest lighthouse until the late nineteenth century and still marks the harbour entrance.

Most historians place his birth in Genoa in 1451, with the Casa di Colombo near Porta Soprana traditionally identified as his childhood home. The Genoese Republic was the dominant maritime power of his youth.

A cold sauce of basil, pine nuts, garlic, pecorino, Parmigiano, and Ligurian olive oil, traditionally pounded in a marble mortar. The basil cultivar Genovese DOP grows on terraces along the Pra' coastline.

Genoa's port handles the largest container tonnage in Italy and ranks among the top dozen in the Mediterranean. The basin runs roughly twenty-two kilometres along the Ligurian coast.

— about the piece in your home

It carries well for Genovesi abroad, Italian-American families tracing the port of departure, and travellers who walked the caruggi. A Medium or Large suits a kitchen or dining room wall.

The slate-and-ochre palette sits naturally with Mediterranean-modern, terracotta-toned warm minimalist, and jewel-tone maximalist rooms. The stained-glass register adds depth above a wood table.

The subject and palette align with current Mediterranean and coastal-Italian directions. A Large above a sideboard or a 4-tile Mural in a hallway carries the room.

A single Large reads across the room. A 4-tile Mural fills the wall above a standard sofa. A 9-tile Mural anchors a longer console or a stairwell landing.

Yes. Choose Dura Satin or Matte for vertical installations in showers, behind sinks, or as a backsplash. The colour lives in the surface and will not lift with steam.

A soft microfibre cloth and clean water are enough. No solvents, no abrasive pads. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface and rests beneath a thin glossy finish.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is made in our Knoxville studio, hand-finished, with no third-party licensing. Reid Wender curates the atlas and approves each place before it enters the catalog.

— if this one stayed with you

A few you might also love.

Hand-picked by the eye that found Sorapis. Same air, same kind of quiet.
— a collection

The Italian Dolomites,
painted slow.

The valleys between Cortina and Val Gardena, the tarns you walk an hour to see, the towers that turn the colour of a banked fire just before dark. Wander the collection by valley, by season, or follow the path Reid walked.

Tre Cime
Braies
Misurina
Sorapis
Cinque Torri
Sassolungo
Marmolada