The Pré neighbourhood stretches between the train station at Piazza Principe and the old port, and it is the most genuinely urban — and genuinely rough — part of the old city. The caruggi here are narrower and darker than in the more touristed areas; the shops are African hairdressers, South Asian grocery stores, and late-night snack bars. It is a neighbourhood in the middle of transition, not yet gentrified, still very much itself.
Niccolò Paganini was born here in 1782, in a house on Passo di Gatta Mora. A plaque marks the building. Beyond that, Pré rewards the visitor who wants to see a working Mediterranean port neighbourhood rather than a restored tourist zone — it is perfectly safe in daylight and interesting precisely because it hasn't been tidied up.