You'll walk past it, stop, and stare. The black and white marble stripes of San Lorenzo's facade are unlike anything else in Italy — dramatic, geometric, impossibly striking against the narrow streets of the old town surrounding it. It looks like it was designed to make you stop in your tracks. It was. Construction began in the 9th century and continued for hundreds of years, which means every detail has a story layered on top of another story.

Step inside and the noise of the Caruggi disappears immediately. The interior is vast, cool, and quietly breathtaking — a mix of Gothic arches, Renaissance chapels, and art accumulated over a thousand years. Don't rush through it. Walk slowly, look up, and let your eyes adjust to the light filtering in.

Before you leave, find the Museo del Tesoro di San Lorenzo in the crypt below — it houses one of the most remarkable collections of medieval and Renaissance sacred art in all of Liguria, and almost nobody talks about it.