Genoa’s Unofficial Anthem

A Genoese emigrant in Latin America has made his fortune, yet one thought gives him no peace: going home. "Ma se ghe penso" (1925, lyrics by Mario Cappello, music by Attilio Margutti) turned that ache – the Genoese call it magon – into an anthem.

For a century it has been sung in the stadium, by choirs, at the city’s celebrations and its funerals: no law ever proclaimed it, but this is Genoa’s anthem – and the anthem of the Genoa scattered across the world. Its plain, direct Genoese is probably the most-sung text in our language.