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Genoa (Italian Genova, Genoese Zena, French Gênes)
is a city and a seaport in northern Italy,
the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. The city has a population of ca. 600,000, the metropolitan area has a population of ca.
800,000.
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Genua was a city of the ancient Ligurians.
Its name is probably Ligurian, meaning
"knee" (from Proto-Indo-European *genu
'knee'), i.e. "angle", from its geographical position, thus akin to
the name of Geneva.
Alternatively, the name has been claimed to derive from Latin Janua ("gate"), the two-headed god Janus, or an
ancient word that means "foreigners", as the early settlers were
considered foreign by the neighbouring population.
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