Aquarium of Genoa
In 1992, the fifth centennial of the discovery of America, the Genoese architect Renzo Piano planned the new area of Porto Antico and the Aquarium of Genoa. The Aquarium is now the biggest in Europe with 70 tanks and more than 10.000 animals of 800 different species. Costa Edutainment S.p.A., a Genoese company specialized in recreational, cultural and educational activities, manages the Aquarium where 1,3 millions of visitors come every year.

The American architect Peter Chermayeff designed the path followed by the visitors inside. It is always changing to be richer and more interesting. In 1998, 2500 square meters of new tropical and Mediterranean environments and new tanks were added (Nave Blue or Nave Italia). In the Aquarium you can observe at close range unusual animals. Others, believe be dangerous, are behind glass partitions. The tanks where penguins, dolphins and sharks live are the most attractive to adult visitors, but espe-cially for children.The thanks perfectly reproduce different natural environments: the Caribbean coral reef, the Cinque Terre rocky and sandy seafloors, the equatorial forests, and the submarine part of a dock of Genoa’s harbour in the 15th century. The biggest simulation of a natural environment (500 sq. m.) is dedicated to the island of Madagascar, a very interesting place from a naturalistic point of view.
The Aquarium of Genoa and the expertise of its staff are a point of reference in defense of threatened species.

Visit to the Aquarium of Genoa.
The philosophy of the Aquarium of Genoa, well known for the careful reconstruction of natural habitats, is to invite people to became familiar with nature, know it and learn to treat it with consideration. In the Aquarium’s tanks the animals go on with their lives without being disturbed. When it is possible, they are not taken away from nature. This was done with the dolphins, whose tank is one of the major points of interest for the visitors, and for the sharks that swim in a 1,2 million litres sea water tank. Recently new Antarctic tanks were opened. In them live Papua penguins, na-tive of Antarctica, and Humboldt Penguins that populate the pacific coasts of South America. The tank where the seals make their home is very appreciated by visitors, and especially by the children. Their natural habitat is the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea.
We suggest to spend some time observing the tank of the ancient docks, where the environment of the 15th century port of Genoa has been reconstructed, and include a 6,75 meters high cylinder of “blue fish”, the tank of jellyfish and one where the depth has been reproduced. Creatures with mythical names and monstrous shape live there, such as the giant Japanese spider crabs and the spotted ratfish.
Other tanks are dedicated to the evocative reconstruction of the Mediterranean Sea. Among these are the tanks of the Cinque Terre of the Neptune grass (Posidonia Oceanica). The Mediterranean reef tank shows how some animals, as the ray and the beadlet anemone that live also in the Ligurian Sea, adjusted themselves to the local conditions. There are also tanks dedicated to the reef of volcanic origin in the Aeolian Islands. Others reproduce the exotic life of the depth as in the Caribbean sea and the Red sea.
A new tank recently has been added to showcase the result of Aquarium staff ef-forts. The Aquarium’s biologists have been working for a long time reproduce hard and soft corals. Their goal is to replace the cement and plastic reproductions with liv-ing corals artificially reproduced.
In the tank of flooded forest the habitat of South America’s rivers has been recreated in an original and truthful manner.
Entering into the Big Blue Ship the visitor sees the reconstruction of a sailboat deck from the past centuries. The intent is to pay homage to the great explorers of the past, as they were also the pioneers of naturalistic exploration. The biologists of the Aquarium of Genoa made two missions to the Madagascar forest to discover new forms of life. In the tank dedicated to the Madagascar’s forest coral reefs have been attentively recreated (about 500 sq. m).
Later on, the visitor may pass through a rain forest, where the hummingbirds live and fly around the tree branches. Here you reach the Central America rain forests where the green iguana lives.
The last tank is dedicated to the Mediterranean Sea. Here the effect of the waves are there recreated. Fish whose names are common for us – gilthead seabass, striped seabass and umbrines are swimming in this t tank.
By paying an additional charge the visitor may accede to the “Aquarium behind the scenes”, a especially interesting section of the visit. Here one can learn how the Aquarium operates and see its facilities and tools. Water analysis laboratory, veteri-nary facilities, kitchens, pumps and filters to prepare and purify the water are housed in two floors, carved in the old dock, about 10 mt. under the sea level.