Sestri Ponente is an
industrial suburb
An industrial suburb is a community, near a large city, with an industrial economy. These communities may be established as tax havens or as places where zoning promotes industry, or they may be industrial towns that become suburbs by urban ...
of
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
in northwest
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. It is part of the Medio Ponente ''municipio'' of Genoa.
Geography
It is situated on the
Ligurian Sea
The Ligurian Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea. It lies between the Italian Riviera ( Liguria) and the island of Corsica. The sea is thought to have been named after the ancient Ligures people.
Geography
The sea borders Italy as far as ...
four miles to the west of the city, between
Pegli
Pegli () is a neighbourhood in the west of Genoa, Italy. With other eighteen autonomous municipalities, in 1926 it ceased being independent and was merged into the municipality of Great Genoa, Genoa.
With a mild climate and a promenade, Pegli is ...
and
Cornigliano. Its population is currently about 50,000, but in the 1970s it was as high as 80,000.
History
The name is derived from the
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
''Sextum'', a small village that was likely founded in the second century A.D., where stones were assembled for the
Roman road
Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...
that left from Genoa. No physical records exist about the population of Sestri before the fifteenth century.
Around 1911, the town had iron-works saw-mills, shipbuilding yards and tanneries and factories for macaroni, matches and tobacco.
[
]
Economy
The links to the transport sector continue to this day; Sestri Ponente is home to Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport. Another major source of employment are the shipyards, part of the Fincantieri
Fincantieri S.p.A. () is an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. Already the largest shipbuilder in Europe, after the acquisition of Vard in 2013, Fincantieri group doubled in size to become the fourth largest in the world (2014 ...
.[Translation]
They are currently enjoying the benefits of the current ship construction boom after the blows felt from the 1970s to the 1990s.
References
External links
Satellite image of Sestri Ponente
{{Authority control
Quartieri of Genoa
Former municipalities of the Province of Genoa
Mediterranean port cities and towns in Italy