When via Garibaldi was still called via Montalbano it used to be the location of public brothels similarly to the Lupanar of Pompeii. This was the time when Genoa was a Mariner Republic, and brothels covered the area from the Maddalena to Porta Soprana. Prostitution was not a free activity as, every 5 years, it was outsourced and, being a source of income, it had to be registered.
Today, speed bumps are located where at that time a gate marked the borders. Prostitutes were regular taxpayers β they paid 5 genovinos per day β and, as workers, they did not work on Saturdays while, dressed in yellow, they went to church on Sundays.
At night they would go back to their job. They were named candle women because the duration and fee of their performance was determined by a notch etched on a candle. At the beginning of the 16th century, in order to make room for its lavish buildings, the Genoese nobility moved the brothels to another area. As money kept flowing, nothing changed until the Reunification of Italy, when Cavour drafted a bill according to which the shutters of the brothels had to be shut so that people could not peep into the rooms.
These houses were registered as luxury buildings and regularly taxed. Alongside the luxurious Suprema and Mary Noir , ranked as first class, where one could find velvet, caviar and champagne, were other low-quality brothels in old stores with wood benches and simple curtains used for dividing the rooms.
The most famous, between and the end of the war, was called Lepre. Feeling nostalgic about Fascism , she prohibited the use of black lingerie, a colour which did not suit certain regions of the body. Belonging to an intermediate ranking category, it also welcomed young men to an after-dinner, where they did⦠nothing!
