On the façade that faces the old town stands a statue, and it is not just any saint: it is Jacobus de Voragine, the chronicler born in Varazze around 1230 who died as archbishop of Genoa in 1298, author of the Golden Legend, the collection of saints' lives that became one of the most copied books of the European Middle Ages. The palazzo that carries his name sits in the historic centre of Varazze and served for a long time as the seat of the town administration.
What to see
The statue is the reason to walk into the lanes instead of stopping at the seafront: it looks at the village, not at the sea, and it recalls that the town and its most famous citizen once shared a name. Varagine was the medieval name of Varazze and meant the place where ships are launched; in the chronicler's signature that name travelled across the manuscript libraries of Europe.
The second detail is on the opposite side. Towards the promenade the building leans against a small tower, and there, painted in fresco, is the municipal coat of arms, the same arms granted to Varazze by royal decree in 1864, the year the town received the title of city. It is worth walking right around the block, because the two faces look onto two different Varazze: the lanes on one side, the promenade and the beach on the other.
Visiting
The palazzo stands in the historic core, on the ridge that separates the shore from the valley of the Teiro stream and that keeps its eleventh-century layout. The old town was closed by walls and five gates: traces of the circuit survive, and the western gate is still the natural way in on foot. There are no tickets and no opening hours, you look at it from outside, and five minutes take you from the inner front to the little tower above the promenade.
Our editors' tip
We look at it twice on the same walk: first from the lane, with the statue of the blessed almost overhead, then from the promenade, when the afternoon light falls full on the coat of arms. Between the two stops, slip into the collegiate church of Sant'Ambrogio a few metres away, which holds a polyptych by Giovanni Barbagelata and a panel by Luca Cambiaso: half an hour more and the historic centre is complete.