LucadeaLuca is the creator of this site. He travels the world for work and loves taking photographs and sharing them with all his visitors.

A glimpse of Rapallo’s old town street.
Taking a walk through the center of Rapallo eventually brings you to Mazzini Street, the pedestrian street at the heart of the town, and this photograph comes from one of those simple walks without a particular destination. In Rapallo, Liguria, Italy, this central street offers a succession of small urban views that are easy to pass without noticing, but which can become interesting once you start looking at them through a camera.
What I like about this part of town is its everyday character. I was not looking for a specific monument or a famous viewpoint, but for a street scene that could capture something of the atmosphere of the old town. Walking through a Ligurian historic center often works this way: the view changes with every few steps, with buildings, shopfronts, passages and perspectives constantly creating new compositions.
Mazzini Street is also the kind of pedestrian street where people come to walk, meet friends, look at shop windows and simply spend some time in the center. In Rapallo, this traditional stroll is known locally as the “struscio”, a word associated with the habit of walking through town and being part of its everyday social life. Even during the quieter winter months, this part of Rapallo remains closely connected with the daily rhythm of the town.
If you are looking for things to see in Rapallo, there are certainly more famous sights and views across the Gulf of Tigullio. But walking along this central street offers a different way of seeing the town. It is less about a single attraction and more about experiencing the urban fabric through the streets people actually use.
That is what I wanted to capture with my camera. The subject here is not a monument, but the street itself and the way it runs through the center of Rapallo. I like photographs like this because they preserve something ordinary. A place does not necessarily have to be spectacular to become worth remembering once you have actually spent time there.
The word “caruggio” is traditionally used in Liguria for a narrow street or lane typical of historic town centers. In everyday local language, it can also refer more broadly to the characteristic pedestrian streets through which people walk and meet. In Rapallo, the expression fits naturally with the role Mazzini Street has in the life of the town.
Photographing a street scene like this also means paying attention to perspective. A few steps can completely change the composition, bringing one building forward while another disappears behind it. This is one of the reasons I often find myself taking photographs even when I am simply walking around without having planned a particular shot.
This image fits naturally with other posts on my site about historic centers and walks through Liguria. I enjoy documenting these places through different details and viewpoints because a town is not made only of the monuments that appear in guidebooks. Its character also comes from the streets that people cross every day.
If you are visiting Rapallo, a walk through the caruggio is therefore one of the simplest ways to get a feel for the center. You do not need a particular itinerary. Just walking along Mazzini Street gives you the opportunity to observe the town at street level, with all the small details that make the setting feel lived in.
For me, that is what this photograph represents: a quiet glimpse of Rapallo as I experienced it while walking through the center. Nothing monumental was required. The street itself was enough to make me stop, look at the scene and take out my camera.

Do you also enjoy the traditional “struscio” when walking through Rapallo’s old town? Add a comment or go to the bottom of the site to read what other visitors have written.

Photo taken with a Canon EOS M100 camera and Canon EF-M 11-22 lens.

The *Caruggio* (or *Carruggio*)—a word that, in the “official spelling” of the Genoese language, is written *Caroggio* and pronounced *Caruggiu* (since the letter ‘o’ is pronounced ‘u’ in Ligurian)—is the term used to describe a street or alleyway, sometimes featuring arcades, typical of Ligurian historic centers. The term is thought to derive from the Latin *quadrivium*, or the more common *quadruvium*.
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