Smarginando. Festival Migrante brings lots of events to town to tell the long story of Italian emigration. 
The Festival is the concept and creation of Leila Maiocco.

A series of guided tours that start from the MEI and explore the city. The first appointment will be on 29 July at 7:00 p.m. in Piazza della Commenda di Prè for “Dal MEI a Caricamento: il racconto della città nel periodo della grande emigrazione tra Otto e Novecento” (From the MEI to the Loading area: the story of the city at the time of the great emigration between the 1800 and 1900s).

Following the huge success of Smarginando - #AspettandoilMei, the second season of appointments with “Smarginando - Festival migrante”, a festival which opens up to the city and includes guided tours of the territory, begins on Friday 29 July. The project has been curated by the MEI Museum in conjunction with the CIV of Via Prè, the Association “Genova in…mostra”, the Prè Gramsci Observatory and the Tourist Association, Pre – Nottando.

Three events are scheduled to take place between July and September - Friday 29 July at 7:00 p.m., Sunday 28 August and Saturday 3 September at 5:30 p.m. Participants will take part in guided tours starting from the MEI and proceeding towards the city and its port, discovering the great emigration from Genoa between the 1800s and 1900s. 

The guided tours, which last approximately an hour and a half, are organised by the CIV of via Prè, “Associazione Genova in mostra”, the Observatory of Prè – Gramsci, and the Tourist Association Pre – Nottando. 

For info on costs and booking, call +39 370. 3289126 e-mail civpre@gmail.com and info@genovainmostra.it

The first itinerary, “Dal MEI a CaricamentoDal MEI a Caricamento” (From the MEI to the Loading area), proposed on 29 July at 7:00 pm, will be dedicated to the story of the city during the period of the great Italian emigration across the Atlantic, from the first half of the 19th century. It was especially in the period between the 19th and 20th centuries that the reception of masses of Italian emigrants of all origins and ages became a real emergency for the city and for this area in front of the port in particular, just when the new entrepreneurial middle class was developing a new urban and elegant layout for the centre of Genoa.

The itinerary will depart from the premises of the MEI Museum, passing through the area of the old Darsena (dock), coasting the sea and observing the city and Via Pré from the harbour, and ending in the Caricamento area, which was populated by inns and hotels at the time. During the tour, participants will go in search of traces of the passage of the emigrants, a varied and sorrowful mass of people who crammed into the city awaiting departure and who it will be easier to describe using the words of illustrious witnesses such as De Amicis and Paul Klee. The arrival and the problem of housing, charitable associations and speculation, international shipping companies and the memory of those who “made it”, are some of the topics that will be explored during the tour. Historically, it covers the period until after the Second World War, and the last emigration to cross the ocean by ship. The telling of many stories and the observation of particulars and details about the area is intended to allow everyone, whether Genoese or not, to more easily approach a broader history, that of Italian emigration in the past. Because knowing the past, as always, helps to gain a better understanding of the present and the issues of emigration today.

The second appointment is scheduled for Sunday 28 August at 5:30 p.m., with the itinerary “Dal MEI a Principe” (From the MEI to Principe). The tale of more than a thousand years of history enclosed within the walls of the Commenda di Pré, one of the city's most important monumental complexes, with a special focus on the urban transformations that have affected the area since the time of the Crusades. 

Route: departure from the MEI, Commenda and Church of S. Giovanni di Pré, Principe railway station. 

Last leg, that of Saturday 3 September, 5:30 p.m. with “Dal MEI attorno a via Pré” (From the MEI around via Pré), a journey along what is probably Genoa’s most famous alleyway. A part of the city to be rediscovered, always poised between the “lawful and the unlawful” but also rich in history, art and curiosities, and at the centre of a new and important renewal.