Why is a church in a Genoese valley dedicated to the bishop of Milan? Because dedications are a map: they tell you which way the influence came from. This one was named for saint Ambrose because of the old links between the Milanese church and Genoa, and the name stayed there marking that relationship long after the relationship was over.
What to see
The building was put up in the first half of the sixteenth century, with three naves and six side altars. A document in the Genoese archiepiscopal register of 1143 would take the foundation back a couple of centuries earlier, but scholars have considerable doubts about it: the classic case of a late paper backdating a church further than the evidence allows.
Until the fifteenth century Traso depended on the archpriestship of Bargagli. The official separation came in 1506, and in the nineteenth century the parish was raised to a provostship by the archbishop of Genoa. These are bureaucratic steps, but for a valley hamlet they meant the right to baptise, marry and bury at home.
Visiting
The church is in piazza XI Febbraio, in the hamlet of Traso, on the road climbing from the Bisagno towards the Fontanabuona; it is a parish church and opens for services. Twenty minutes.
Our editors' tip
In the same municipality, a little further on, there is a church dedicated to saint Syrus, who is the patron of Genoa. Two neighbouring hamlets, two holy bishops, two different cities: Milan on one side, Genoa on the other. In a valley like this the dedications of the churches are the simplest way to see who was pulling from where.