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 my own experience with jewelry began, working in my family’s jewelry business.
I later trained as a goldsmith and eventually managed the business myself. Years later, when I founded Via Orefici in the United States, the name felt like a natural choice.
It was where my story with jewelry began, but it also represented a world of jewelry I knew well.
A Street with a Long History
The connection between this part of Genoa and goldsmithing goes 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 from 1459 depicting Sant’Eligio, the patron saint of goldsmiths, is still preserved there.
Throughout Italy, streets still carry the names of the craftsmen and trades that once occupied them. These were working streets, places where people made things and where knowledge was passed from one generation to another.
Via Orefici is one of them.
From a Street to a Point of View
What interests me about this tradition is not simply its history, but what came from it.
Growing up around jewelry and later training at the bench shaped the way I look at a jewel. I notice the materials, the construction and the finishing. But technique alone does not make a beautiful jewel.
I also look for beauty, character and wearability. A piece should reflect the skill behind it, but above all, it should work beautifully as jewelry.
That experience still influences the jewelry I design and the pieces I select for Via Orefici today.
The name is personal to me, but it also represents the point of view behind Via Orefici.
It began with a street in Genoa, where my experience with jewelry began, and continues in the jewelry we create and bring together today.
