Via Orefici: The Street Behind the Name

The story of Genoa’s historic Goldsmiths’ Street and the tradition behind the Via Orefici name.

Via Orefici means Goldsmiths’ Street. It is a street in the historic center of Genoa, Italy, where goldsmiths and jewelers have worked for centuries. It is also where founder Antonella Carlevaro Rossi first worked with jewelry, in her family’s jewelry business. She later trained as a goldsmith and managed the business herself.

When Antonella founded Via Orefici in the United States years later, she chose the name for its double meaning. Via Orefici refers to the place where her experience with jewelry began, but it also represents the foundation on which Via Orefici is built: the Italian goldsmith tradition and the botteghe orafe (traditional goldsmith workshops), where knowledge, craftsmanship, and skilled hands come together to create beautiful jewelry.

A Goldsmith Tradition with a Long History

The connection between this part of Genoa and goldsmithing reaches back to the Middle Ages. In 1248, statutes concerning the Genoese goldsmiths' guild were established at the Church of Santa Maria delle Vigne, only steps from Via Orefici. The church remained connected to the goldsmith community, and a marble slab dated 1459, belonging to the Goldsmiths’ Corporation and depicting Sant’Eligio, patron saint of goldsmiths, is still preserved there.

This history is part of a larger Italian tradition. In many historic cities, streets still carry the names of the craftsmen and trades once concentrated there. These were working districts, where specialized knowledge developed through generations of making. Via Orefici is one of those places.

From a Street to a Point of View

What Antonella values in this tradition is not simply its history, but the jewelry it continues to produce.

The Italian bottega orafa brings together knowledge of materials, skilled craftsmanship, technical ability, and an understanding of how a jewel should be made and finished. These are qualities Antonella has known throughout her professional life and continues to look for today.

Through Via Orefici, she brings jewelry created within this tradition to clients in the United States, selecting and shaping the collection through her own eye for materials, design, beauty, character, and wearability.

That is what the name represents today. Via Orefici is both a place and a point of view.