GENOA, Italy — Genoa, if you ignore the debate amongst scholars, is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. But after visiting the famed historic port, you might wonder why the explorer ever left.

Tricked out in all the wealth of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it must have been stunning. Even a half-millennium after its heyday, the Italian port cuts an impressive figure.

This Italian city follows closely behind two of my other favorite cities, San Francisco and Barcelona. Like both, it has lovely hilly terrain and a seafaring tradition. Yet, for some reason, Genoa slips under the radar of many guidebooks. The books we used in two previous trips to Italy carry nary a mention of the city. Our last trip was centered in the Piedmont region around Turin, and we decided to add Genoa and the Italian Riviera. I'm glad we did.

Though Genoa can't elbow past Rome, Venice and Florence amid Italy's must-see cities, it is a fabulous spot. The prices are reasonable, it is less crowded with tourists, museums abound and it offers fabulous cuisine, with an emphasis on seafood and the local specialty, pesto.

A stroll through the Medieval center peels away the centuries. The labyrinth of narrow streets lives in nearly perpetual shadow as 500-year-old buildings lean in until they almost meet. No street follows a straight line for long, and it's a challenge to keep a sense of direction. But getting lost is part of the fun. Every twist and turn reveals a surprise, from 500-year-old palaces and glorious churches to thoroughly modern Internet cafes and trendy little restaurants or the seedy red-light district. There's the occasional surprise of a mini traffic jam as determined Italian drivers inch past each other in the impossibly narrow streets.

Genoa was an important trade center by the third century B.C. Its sailors have plied the world's trade routes since the Phoenicians and Greeks. Genoa offered a jumping off spot for the Crusaders. And, it was a major player in European politics from the 13th through 16th centuries. Its merchants dumped their profits into stunning palaces lining the renamed Via Garibaldi. Back then, it was called the Via Aurea, or golden street, an appropriate name.

But the waterfront is what really makes Genoa work. A large portion is renovated with a boardwalk, slips for yachts, a galleon (which was actually built for Roman Polanski's 1986 movie "Pirates"), restaurants, touristy shops and a fabulous aquarium and the Galata Museo del Mare (Sea Museum).

I lost most of an afternoon wandering the museum. If you're a boat-in-a-bottle kind of guy or Patrick O'Brian fan, this place beats shore leave on the Barbary Coast with a pocket full of doubloons and a bottle of rum. It covers ships and sailors from the earliest vessels up to today. It has a complete reconstructed 17th-century Genovese galley, accompanied by a detailed profile of the men who powered these fast-moving ships with banks of oars. My wife loved the multimedia recreation of sea travel in the early part of the last century. Films contrast the crowded Atlantic crossing of America-bound migrants in steerage with the parties and dancing of flappers above. The museum's glassed-in rooftop gives a panoramic view of the still-working port and city climbing up a mountainside.

The Acquario di Genova nearby bills itself as the biggest aquarium in Europe. This stop is certain to entertain everyone.

Once you've built up an appetite looking at all the fish, the waterfront is crowded with restaurants. I savored the mussels and a traditional pasta with pesto and green beans at Le Maschere at 2/4r Via Ponte Calvi, down near the waterfront.

As the traditional birthplace of Columbus, Genoa could be excused for overdoing the promotion of the explorer. But Columbus' fame (and notoriety for some) doesn't seem to have taken over here. Sure, for the equivalent of about $4, you can squeeze into the tiny house where he allegedly lived as a child to see a disappointing display of what it might have looked like then. But Genoa isn't overrun with businesses, streets, squares and the lot named after him. You're likely to see the names Garibaldi and Doria more often. Giuseppe Garibaldi's military exploits in the mid-1800s were pivotal in Italy's unification. And Admiral Andrea Doria built Genoa's naval and political power in the early 1500s.