Palazzo Reale Genoa

How to visit without overpaying or being caught out

Palazzo Reale runs the length of Via Balbi, the grandest street of the UNESCO-listed Strade Nuove, and it’s a five-minute walk uphill from Genova Piazza Principe station — handy if you’re arriving by train from Milan or Cinque Terre. Buy the plain €12 ticket at the door; there’s no real need to book ahead, because it rarely sells out. The detail most visitors miss is that this is a combined ticket valid for a year that also admits you to Palazzo Spinola a few streets away — so it works as a two-palace pass you can use on separate days, not the price of a single sight. If you can time it for the first Sunday of the month, entry is free.

The room that earns the visit is the Galleria degli Specchi — a Hall of Mirrors modelled on Versailles, all gilded stucco and reflected light, freshly restored and back open. There’s also a picture gallery with Van Dyck portraits and a Tintoretto. The catch to plan around in 2026: the Grand Noble Floor was shut for lighting works from 13 January to April, and it has only reopened in part since May. Open now are the throne room, the mirror gallery, the battle hall, the Veronese and Diana rooms and the terraces; still closed are the ballroom, audience hall and royal bedrooms, and access to the hanging garden is currently suspended for works. Check the official site before you commit if a particular state room — or that Baroque roof garden — is your main draw.

Is it worth it?

For £10 that also covers Palazzo Spinola for a year, yes — it’s one of the better-value paid sights in the city, and it stays quiet compared with the crowds you’d queue in for the equivalent in Florence or Rome. Allow about an hour and a half for the open rooms, gallery and mirrors; a little less than usual while the ballroom and royal apartments are shut. What to skip: don’t pay separately for a Palazzo Spinola ticket later when this one already includes it, and don’t make a special trip for the hanging garden right now, since its access is suspended. Pair it with a wander down Via Garibaldi’s Musei di Strada Nuova palaces to make a proper morning of Genoa’s aristocratic core.