The “Specialised International Exposition Genoa 1992” was held in Genoa, Italy, from May 15 to August 15, 1992. Organized by Ente Colombo '92, it was a specialized exhibition under the Second Categorization System, set on 6 hectares of the city's old harbor. It commemorated the 500th anniversary of the arrival in the Americas of Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, and it recorded 817,045 visits.

Genoa, long a major industrial port, declined in the 1960s and 1970s and needed new opportunities for redevelopment. In the 1980s the city decided to organize an Expo to open those opportunities and promote its image, and the BIE's 102nd General Assembly recognized the project. The theme, “Christopher Columbus: The Ship and the Sea,” honored the voyage of 1492 and complemented the universal exhibition held the same year in Seville, Expo 1992 Seville.

Renzo Piano, who had been entrusted with the redevelopment of the old port in 1984, designed the site to link the harbor with Piazza Principe in the city center, so that the Expo would double as an urban renewal project for derelict port areas. Two permanent buildings were constructed: a large facilities center and an aquarium on the Ponte Spinola, the largest in Italy. The centerpiece was the Bigo, a structure of large masts inspired by the derricks of cargo ships, which also supports the canvas roof of the Piazza delle Feste and carries a glass elevator that rises 40 meters for views over the harbor and the old city. The former cotton warehouses, the Magazzini del Cotone, were converted into a congress center, and the Millo warehouses served as an exhibition area.

The BIE counts 52 participants. The Bahamas displayed artifacts of the Indigenous Lucayan people and photographs of places where Columbus may first have landed. Japan drew crowds with its graphic displays and a talking robot dressed as a samurai that explained the importance of the sea to Japan, and its exhibit included the Yotei Maru, a ferry that once carried train carriages between Honshu and Hokkaido. Italy's pavilion was housed aboard a ship, the Nave Italia. The United States pavilion occupied a renovated 17th-century palazzo and focused on Chesapeake Bay and the port of Baltimore. Attendance, however, was far more modest than the organizers had hoped.

The Expo's lasting achievement was the rebirth of the old harbor, a priority for local, regional and national governments. The wall that separated the historic center from the port came down, restoring direct access to the sea, and the city gained an underground metro line, new pedestrian areas and architectural improvements. The aquarium still attracts more than one million visitors a year, the Piazza delle Feste serves as an ice rink in winter and an events venue in summer, and the Magazzini del Cotone now also house shops, a cinema and the Città dei Bambini, a science and play space. Expo 1992 Genoa was modest in size, but it turned a neglected waterfront into one of the city's most visited public spaces.