Genova e Napoli
Alfa & Gigi D'Alessio
How to study this song
Learning “Genova e Napoli” means 49 entries at B1- — 13 Italian words, 7 adjectives and 29 verb forms, every one taken from what the song actually says. Begin with amore and città: get those and most of the lines stop being guesswork. This one leans on its verbs: 29 distinct forms against 7 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level part of the list will already be familiar; the rest is what closes the gap.
The words of this song, in several languages
Every word below is taken from this song and translated by us. Nothing here is the lyric itself — these are the individual words you need in order to follow it.
Vocabulary
| IT | EN | ES | FR | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amore | love | amor | amour | amor | liefde | Liebe |
| città | city, town | ciudad | ville | cidade | stad | Stadt |
This card holds 11 more words. You meet them when you play the song.
Adjectives
| IT | EN | ES | FR |
|---|
What this song teaches you
Level · B1-
- Vocabulary words
- 13
- Adjectives
- 7
- Word combos
- 16
- Expressions
- 12
- Verb forms
- 29
- Quiz questions
- 35
Background
About the song
«Genova e Napoli» is a duet by the Genoese singer-songwriter Alfa and the Neapolitan singer, pianist and composer Gigi D'Alessio. It reached Italian radio on Friday 28 August 2026 through the label and distributor Artist First, and according to the Italian press it is the first time the two artists have worked together in a recording studio. The track lasts just under three minutes. Its title simply names the two port cities the performers come from, and the whole project is built around the long relationship between them: a relationship of ships and trade, of songs travelling from one harbour to the other, and, for many football supporters, of an old friendship between the fans of Genoa and Napoli.
The public heard the song before it was released. On Saturday 22 August 2026, before the opening match of the new Serie A season between Genoa and Napoli at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa, a piano and a guitar appeared on the pitch without any announcement. Alfa sang and played the guitar, D'Alessio sat at the piano, and the two performed the new song for the crowd shortly before kick-off. According to the magazine DiLei, that day was also Alfa's twenty-sixth birthday, and the two singers swapped the shirts of their teams. The match itself ended 2–0 to Napoli. A few weeks later, on 16 September 2026, the pair surprised the public again, this time in Naples, singing the song together at the Panorama Sant'Antonio viewpoint in Posillipo, as reported by the news site Il Nord Est.
When they presented the single, both artists insisted that it is first of all a love song. D'Alessio described it as the story of two distant cities that share the same soul, and compared supporting a football club to a love affair, made of waiting, disappointments and new beginnings; in his view the sea that lies between Genoa and Naples is precisely what has always joined them. Alfa, who grew up supporting Genoa, said the two cities have always talked to each other through their ports and their music, and that the single is meant as one more page in that conversation rather than its beginning. He recalled that Neapolitan song is one of the roots of Italian popular music, and mentioned the way Genoese songwriters such as Fabrizio De André and Gino Paoli worked with the Neapolitan repertoire.
The lyric follows a couple who live apart. The narrator admits that a love which is too intense is harder to keep alive, compares the two lovers to a pair of harbour cities, and describes the small habits that remain after a separation, such as sleeping in an awkward position so as not to end up on the other person's half of the bed, or holding on to a memory the way one holds a pillow against the chest. The chorus is a promise: nobody will ever love the way they do, and if being together hurts, the narrator is ready to suffer a little more every day. Distance, the song says, does not make them different, because the only thing between them is water.