Beyond the border of the historic city. Towards Genova smart city

The text investigates the possible evolution of the historic city toward the contents of today’s smart cities, reporting on a research and comparison work that examined the city of Genova, indicating its identity characteristics and paths of “smart transformation”, considering as a reference the data provided by the Index Reports prepared by Ernst & Young as a reference. Data from the predetermined assessment models, again drawn up by the E&Y group, for identifying and ranking the most advanced cities in terms of urban management and planning are analised. Discussion proceed arguing technological and sustainable evolution as well as analysing and describing (highlighting the response of citizens) through a comparison with early cases of smart cities as Amsterdam, which represents an early innovative model in Europe. The general framework is that Smart Cities, which is oriented through a process of innovation and change, widespreads in much of Europe. Evaluating and comparing the Genova theme with the first cases of smart cities in Italy, such as Bologna, Torino and Trento. We discuss data with the aim of delving into the progress, as well as the past, of Genova in the years 2016/2020, processing and comparing the data with those provided by the 2016 and 2018 Smart City Index. The work aimed to integrate, by means of a specific survey of Genova, values and disvalues, trying to schematize in a conceptual way the interventions that led to an increase in Smartness indices in the time frame considered.