Genoa

Genoa (/ˈdʒɛnoʊ.ə/ JEN-oh-ə; Italian: Genova [ˈdʒɛːnova]; Genoese and Ligurian Zena [ˈzeːna]; French: Gênes; Latin and archaic English Genua) is the capital of Liguria and the sixth largest city in Italy with a population of 588 688 within its administrative limits on a land area of 243.6 km² (94 sq mi). The urban area called Genoa Metropolitan City has an official population of 862,885. Over 1.5 million people live in the Genoa Metropolitan Area. Genoa is one of Europe's largest cities on the Mediterranean Sea and the largest seaport in Italy.

Genoa has been nicknamed la Superba ("the Proud one") due to its glorious past and impressive landmarks. Part of the old town of Genoa was inscribed on the World Heritage List (UNESCO) in 2006 (see below). The city's rich cultural history in notably its art, music and cuisine allowed it to become the 2004 European Capital of Culture. It is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus and Niccolo Paganini.

Genoa, which forms the southern corner of the Milan-Turin-Genoa industrial triangle of north-west Italy, is one of the country’s major economic centres. The city has hosted massive shipyards and steelworks since the 19th century, and its solid financial sector dates back to the Middle Ages. The Bank of Saint George, founded in 1407, is among the oldest in the world and has played an important role in the city’s prosperity since the middle of the 15th century. Today a number of leading Italian companies are based in the city, including Selex ES,Ansaldo Energia,Ansaldo STS, Edoardo Raffinerie Garrone, Piaggio Aero and Costa Crociere.

Genoa, Houston

Genoa is an area in Houston, Texas, United States located about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Downtown Houston; it was formerly a distinct unincorporated area in Harris County.

History

J. H. Burnett established Genoa in 1892; Burnett gave the community the name "Genoa" because he believed that the climate was similar to the climate of Genoa, Italy. The post office opened during that year. The founder built a railroad depot serving the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad, five houses, one hotel, and one store. The community was located along a main street that is now known as Almeda Genoa Road (the road from Almeda to Genoa). The east end of the community was the Old Galveston Road (Texas State Highway 3) and the Galveston, Houston, Henderson Railroad. The western edge was Freestone Street and the railway just to the west. Where the main street continued on east from Old Galveston Road became known as Genoa Redbluff (the road from Genoa to Redbluff). The Handbook of Texas stated that Genoa "grew slowly." By 1905 a school with one teacher and thirty students appeared. In 1914 the community had 200 people and several businesses, including a general store, a dairy, a nursery, a blacksmith shop, and a carpenter. By 1925 the community had 100 people; the population remained at this level until around 1941. During that year Genoa had 400 people and fifteen businesses. The population remained at that level until Houston annexed Genoa in the mid-1960s.

Genoa C.F.C.

Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to simply as Genoa (Italian pronunciation: [ˈd͡ʒɛːnoa]), is a professional Italian football and cricket club based in the city of Genoa, Liguria. Established on 7 September 1893, it is Italy's first official football team.

During their long history, Genoa have won the Serie A nine times. Genoa's first title came at the inaugural championship in 1898 and their last was in 1923–24. They also won the Coppa Italia once. Historically, Genoa is the fourth most successful Italian club in terms of championships won.

This slew of early successes may lie at the origin of the love professed for the team by the godfather of Italian sports journalists Gianni Brera (1919–92), who, despite having been born nowhere near Genoa, always declared himself a supporter of the team. Brera went as far as creating the nickname Vecchio Balordo (Old Fool or Cranky Old One) for Genoa.

The club has played its home games at the 36,536 capacity Stadio Luigi Ferraris since 1911. Since 1946, the ground has been shared with local rivals Sampdoria. Genoa has spent most of its post-war history going up and down between Serie A and Serie B, with two brief spells in Serie C.

Genoa (sail)

The genoa or genny was originally referred to as an 'overlapping jib' and later as a Genoa jib. It is a type of large jib or staysail that overlaps the main sail, sometimes eliminating it. It is used on single-masted sloops and twin-masted boats such as yawls and ketches. Its larger surface area increases the speed of the craft in light to moderate winds; in high wind conditions a smaller jib is usually substituted, and downwind a spinnaker may be used. The feature that distinguishes a genoa from a working jib is that the former extends past the mast, overlapping the mainsail when viewed from the side.

Definition

The term Jib is the generic term for any of an assortment of headsails. The term genoa (or genny) refers to a type of jib that is larger than the 100% foretriangle, which is the triangular area formed by the point at which the stay intersects the mast, and deck or bowsprit, and the line where the mast intersects deck at the rail. Colloquially the term is sometimes used interchangeably with jib. A working jib is no larger than the 100% foretriangle. A genoa is larger, with the leech going past the mast and overlapping the mainsail. To maximize sail area, the foot of the sail is generally parallel and very close to the deck when close hauled.

Italy

Coordinates: 43°N 12°E / 43°N 12°E / 43; 12

Italy (ⁱ/ˈɪtəli/; Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Italy covers an area of 301,338 km² (116,347 sq mi) and has a largely Mediterranean and temperate climate; due to its shape, it is often referred to in Italy as lo Stivale (the Boot). With 61 million inhabitants, it is the 4th most populous EU member state. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino and Vatican City.

Since ancient times, Greeks, Etruscans and Celts have inhabited the south, centre and north of the Italian Peninsula respectively. Rome ultimately emerged as the dominant power, conquering much of the ancient world and becoming the leading cultural, political, and religious centre of Western civilisation. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the global distribution of civilian law, Republican governments, Christianity and the latin script.

Roman Italy

Roman Italy was created officially by the Roman Emperor Augustus with the Latin name Italia. It was the first time in history that the Italian peninsula (from the Alps to the Ionian Sea) was united under the same name. In the year 292, the three islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily were added to Roman Italy by Emperor Diocletianus.

Characteristics

Italy (Italia in Latin and Italian) was the name of the administrative division of the Italian peninsula during the Roman era. It was not a province, but became the territory of the city of Rome, thus having a special status. Following the end of the Social War (91–88 BC), Rome had allowed its Italian allies (socii) full rights in Roman society and granted the Roman citizenship to all the Italic peoples.

After having been for centuries the heart of the Empire, from the 3rd century the government and the cultural center began to move eastward: first the Edict of Caracalla in 212 AD extended Roman citizenship to all free men within the imperial boundaries, then during Constantine's reign (306–337) the seat of the Empire was moved to Constantinople in 330 AD.

Italian wine

Italy is home to some of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world, and Italian wines are known worldwide for their broad variety. Italy, closely followed by France, is the world’s largest wine producer by volume. Its contribution is about 45–50 million hl per year, and represents about ⅓ of global production.Italian wine is exported around the world and is also extremely popular in Italy: Italians rank fifth on the world wine consumption list by volume with 42 litres per capita consumption. Grapes are grown in almost every region of the country and there are more than one million vineyards under cultivation.

Etruscans and Greek settlers produced wine in Italy before the Romans started their own vineyards in the 2nd century B.C. Roman grape-growing and winemaking was prolific and well-organized, pioneering large-scale production and storage techniques like barrel-making and bottling.

History

Although vines had been cultivated from the wild Vitis vinifera grape for millennia, it wasn't until the Greek colonization that wine-making flourished. Viticulture was introduced into Sicily and southern Italy by the Mycenaean Greeks, and was well established when the extensive Greek colonization transpired around 800 BC. It was during the Roman defeat of the Carthaginians (acknowledged masters of wine-making) in the 2nd century BC that Italian wine production began to further flourish. Large-scale, slave-run plantations sprang up in many coastal areas and spread to such an extent that, in AD 92, emperor Domitian was forced to destroy a great number of vineyards in order to free up fertile land for food production.