When I finished Blanca, I wanted to book a flight to Genoa.
When I watched Petra, I didn’t.
It’s the same city.
The same narrow alleyways.
The same harbour.
The same colourful buildings.
Yet somehow it feels like a completely different place.
Blanca makes Genoa feel alive. She dances through it. She cooks, laughs, walks in the rain and somehow notices more of the city than most people with perfect eyesight.
Petra doesn’t.
She marches through Genoa like she’s trying to get somewhere as quickly as possible.
The streets feel less like places to wander and more like places to stay away because someone is pissing in the alley, in the shadows.
Nothing feels romantic.
The alleyways don’t invite you in.
They make you wonder what’s around the next corner.
That’s what I love about the series.
It doesn’t try to sell Genoa as a postcard.
It shows the rough edges.
The damp walls.
The graffiti.
The forgotten corners.
A city where people actually live instead of somewhere tourists come to take photographs.
I don’t think Genoa changes between the two series.
I think Petra changes it.
We don’t experience cities as they are.
We experience them through the people who walk through them.
Blanca finds music, food and possibility.
Petra finds crime, disappointment and another day’s work.
Same streets.
Different eyes.
That’s why both versions of Genoa feel completely real.
WATCH THE SEASON 2 TRAILER BELOW
