Genoa in the 15th century

Genoa, at the time of Columbus, was a meeting place for ships coming from the East and those bound for the West (to Catalonia, Castile, Portugal, Flanders, and England). It was, with the exception of Venice, the most important port in the Mediterranean. This is why one of the more recognized schools of nautical cartography flourished here. It is not by chance that Christopher Columbus, the greatest sailor of all time, was born here.