The Genoa aquarium is Europe's largest aquarium and it hosts marine animals from all over the world besides hosting a wide variety of aquatic ecosystems.
The Aquarium is in the area of the Old Port of Genoa.
The Genoa aquarium is the largest aquarium in Europe with its 25,000 square meters of exhibition space in over 60 rooms and it has over 10,000 animals from all the world's seas and a wide variety of aquatic plants.
The visit starts with a spectacular video projected on a big screen: a beautiful sequence of images on the marine theme to explain the importance of the sea as a means of communication and water for the life of all living beings.
The visit then continues in the Grotta delle Murene, which means moray eels cave, a cylindrical tank where together with the moray eels swim funny scorpion fishes. In this room there is also a nice octopus that often goes unnoticed because of the majesty of the moray eels around him.
The visitors’ route then leads to the room of the impressive manatees, a species at serious risk of extinction. The manatees can be seen both in the lower floor while swimming in the water, and in the upper floor where they can be visible by a walkway near the external area intended for them.
The dolphin tank
Popular is the bay of sharks where these predators of the sea swim majestically together with other species of fish such as sawfish.
Another inevitable stop is the one at the pool of the cute seals, some of which were born in the Aquarium of Genoa while others were abandoned by their mothers in nature and saved. As in the case of manatees, this tank is also visible on the second floor of the Aquarium, via a walkway that allows you to see the seals when they are out of the water.
The Papua penguins and Magellan penguins can be seen in the Genoa Aquarium also and the tank dedicated to them can be viewed from different angles as well.
But the highlight of the Aquarium is perhaps the recently added Cetacean Pavilion, designed by the famous Italian architect, Renzo Piano, and completed a few years ago: four floors that house a pool of bottlenose dolphins. There are large glass walls and an underwater tunnel allowing dolphins to be observed from an underwater perspective.
The Biodiversity Pavilion, with its tactile tank, allows to pet some animals such as rays and this pavilion also houses a pool with tropical species and an educational area where it is possible to witness the reconstruction of a coral reef portion.
A very interesting area is that of the tropical forest, an environment with high biodiversity where you can admire frogs, tortoises, fish, geckos, as well as over 150 tropical plants. The Biodiversity pavilion ends with the exhibition section that pays tribute to the great explorers and naturalists of the past.
Another very choreographic room of the Aquarium is that of the jellyfish, so much feared in the water but so fascinating in the “window.” An incredible show!
There are three small pools, in one of which one can observe the fluorescence of corals together with the jellyfish which glow under the special lights’ effects implemented in this room.
The Aquarium often organizes events such as Sleeping with the sharks, in which kids can sleep in sleeping bags close to the tanks.
It is also possible to organize corporate and private events at the Aquarium and even weddings! Last year I attended a wedding here and it was beautiful to have the wedding reception by the dolphins’ tank.
Wedding reception I attended at the Genoa Aquarium
