What we call the Royal Palace today is in reality a large patrician residence built, enlarged and decorated with splendor over time, not only by the Savoys in the nineteenth century , but also by two great Genoese dynasties: the Balbis , who built it between 1643 and 1650, and the Durazzos who enlarged it between the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the following century. The vaults of the living rooms and galleries are frescoed by some of the most important names in local baroque and rococo decoration. Among the over one hundred paintings displayed in the rooms there are works by the best Genoese artists of the seventeenth century together with masterpieces by Bassano , Tintoretto , Luca Giordano , Antoon van Dyck , Ferdinand Voet and Guercino .

The visit includes the monumental atrium with eighteenth-century stuccoes , the courtyard of honour , the hanging garden and the noble apartment on the second floor with spectacular reception rooms such as the Throne Room , the Ballroom and the Gallery of Mirrors .

On Saturday mornings (09:00 - 13:30) or on the occasion of temporary exhibitions, the Apartment of the Hereditary Princes also known as the Apartment of the Duke of Abruzzi, built by the Savoys on the First Piano Nobile of the palace, can be visited: this admirable example of a royal apartment preserves nineteenth-century furnishings, fabrics and decorations still intact

The residence is part of the "Palazzi dei Rolli" system and therefore since 2006 it has been recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO .