Ferries from Genoa

Genoa is not a port with several operators. It is Grandi Navi Veloci's home port with a few others alongside — every one of the six routes in our timetable is worked by GNV, and the network they run from here reaches Morocco and Tunisia as readily as Sardinia.

Where the ships go

• Palermo — 16 sailings, the busiest.
• Olbia — 13 sailings, with Tirrenia alongside GNV.
• Tanger Med in Morocco — 11 sailings.
• Barcelona — 11 sailings.
• Tunis — 10 sailings.
• Porto Torres — 9 sailings.

124 active sailings in total. Of the 70 outbound sailings listed above, 32 leave Italy altogether — Morocco, Tunisia and Spain between them outrank every Sardinian route on this quay.

⚠ The Morocco and Tunisia sailings run on a different calendar

These are not holiday routes. They peak in the European summer holiday period for reasons of family travel rather than tourism, and in those weeks vehicle space and cabins go months in advance.

If you are planning a Sardinia crossing in late July or August, you are competing for deck space with a completely different traffic that books earlier than you do.

The terminal

Ferries use the Stazione Marittima area on the western side of the old harbour, close to the city centre and to Genova Piazza Principe station. Cruise traffic shares the same stretch of waterfront.

Road access runs along the raised Sopraelevata above the docks — straightforward once found and thoroughly confusing until then. Allow more time than the map suggests.

The numbers behind it

The port authority recorded 2.6 million ferry passengers in 2025, alongside 2.4 million cruise passengers across Genoa and Savona. Container throughput hit an all-time record of 2,999,486 TEU for the authority, with total cargo at 62.9 million tonnes.

Ferries are a minority of that tonnage and a large share of the people. It is a freight port that also happens to move the population of a mid-sized country every year.

Why so many long routes

Genoa sits at the top of the Tyrrhenian, which makes it the natural northern end for anything sailing to Sicily, Sardinia or North Africa, and the closest major Italian port to France and Spain. That geography, not the city, is what fills the timetable.