Genoa undergoes a transformation every year, in September, when the schools re-open after the long summer recess, and traffic indications appear along the main thoroughfares leading to the assigned special car-parking areas for the Boat Show.
Genoa Pre-Salone-Nautico
The town's drivers resign themselves to a few more traffic jams in the town centre, bus and taxi-drivers gird themselves for extra work, very well-dressed students fluent in several languages press their contacts for a short-term steward or hostess job, carpenters from all over build up the stands in the exhibition area, transporters, crane and fork-lift operators are all mobilized to bring the boats safely through the busy streets and unload them.
Meanwhile out of town, activity in boat-yards is frenetic, preparing fool-proof exhibition material, making sure the yachts exhibited are fault-free, fully functioning, looking their best and, if necessary, ready for sea-trials.
Hairdressers are busy, and even the Senegalese street vendors are stocking up on umbrellas: at least one day of true downpour is almost guaranteed during the Boat Show period, otherwise blessed with warm, pleasant, early autumn sun.
Genoa Boat Show Visitor Information
Tickets are on sale at € 15 for a full day from 10.00 to 18.30 hours, and until 22.30 hours on the opening day only. Children under 6 enter free; children from 6 -14 years of age, or groups of 30+ adults enter for € 12. Entrance tickets are available on line on the Show's website, or at the gates. Boat Show ticket holders are eligible for various discounts in Genoa during the Show period, including to the Aquarium and to most of the Museums, so hang on to your used ticket and wave it hopefully wherever you have to pay!
Location
The Fair area overlooks the entrance to the port of Genoa, so the "marine experience" is real. Apart from the fatidical "down-pour day", the weather should be very pleasing, and visitors from the North will find a beach to swim if they have time.
Access by car to the exhibition area is problematic in peak traffic times, but bus services are frequent and the airport, train stations, main hotels and car-parking areas are all well connected.
Besides the main entrance in Piazzale Kennedy, a second entrance is convenient for visitors arriving by boat from Porto Antico or from the Sestri Ponente Marina or by the sea-bus from Pegli. For those who find a hotel in one of these area, the public boat trip is an economic way to see the other Genoa, the Genoa of the rest of the year, a port with maxi-cruise ships calling regularly and a main ferry port for the islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily, Barcelona and North African ports.
Disabled Access
This ample area has good access for the disabled (excluding obviously entry to the boats on land or in the sea, or to the mobile piers). Four-wheeled electrical scooters and wheelchairs are available, but due to demand should be reserved in advance through Terre di Mare.
Marine and Nautical Business
The Boat Show was not set up to attract tourists (although it does), but to present to the nautical market a wide range of new and top-class products, giving the purchaser the chance to confront the production of Italian and international boat- and yacht-builders without having to travel the length and breadth of the land, to meet designers, and possibly with the designer of their choice, contact different yards for quotations, choose accessories, work out the details of an important contract.
The Genoa Boat Show presents everything from the most luxurious maxi-yachts (from this year with a special reception of their own), through sailing boats for cruising or racing, sport fishing craft, dinghies, speedboats, inflatable craft, accessories of all kinds from engines and propulsion to electronic instruments to marine toilets, marine paints, marine clothing and shoes.
The main sponsor, Rolex, will devote an area to its new watch collections, particularly the sports and diving watches.
The Show is jointly organized by Fiera di Genova S.p.A., the exhibition company, and UCINA CONFINDUSTRIA NAUTICA, the local nautical industrial union. More that 1300 exhibitors are expected in the 2011 edition, with over 2000 boats on display, 450 of them in the water.
After two years in which the marine/nautical industry has been affected by slackening in demand, there are strong hopes that this year will see a return to a positive trend. The Genoa Boat Show with 450 new craft on show, and initiatives such as the Genoa International Boating Forum, will play an important role.
Valerie Wilson - Valerie Wilson has lived, studied and worked in Scotland, Germany and Italy; mainly employed in multi-national companies in shipping ...
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