Not far from Porta Soprana, the best-known gate of the ancient walls of Genoa, is the Casa di Colombo (Christopher Columbus House) where the discoverer of the Americas lived in his youth.

According to archival documents, Domenico Colombo, father of the great navigator, moved to the house in Genoa in 1455, when Christopher was four years old. The ground floor of the house was used as a workshop; a wooden beam divides it from the upper floor, where the rooms for private use were located.