The economic life of Genoa has been changing for the last decades. Genoa was an industrial city in the past; its industries were all based on the presence of the harbor (for example Ansaldo industries that built the first trains and the first iron ships in Italy). Now economy is more modern and it is mainly based on the third sector, especially tourism and commerce. This is why there was the renewal of the so much demeaned areas around the two main streams of Genoa, Bisagno and Polcevera. Genoa aims to become a modern clean city, whose economy is mainly based on tourism and new technologies, on electronic and IT. Its harbor is one of the most important of Mediterranean area (it is the second of this area, after that of Marseille). There are many important terminals used to move the containers, modern dockings for holiday cruiser and ferryboats in the ancient port, and important shipyards where ships are built and repaired.

The fame of the city is especially to two sectors: sailing craft and clothing industry. The cloth commonly called jeans comes from a special weaving used in the past to create the uniforms of Genoan ‘crossbowmen’ or to cover the galleys. This blue cloth is very resistant and cheap and it was used also as an overall by workers in the harbor, the so-called ‘camalli of ‘Compagnia dei Caravana’.