★ History and art · Genoa and the BeiguaGenoaOne of the largest monumental cemeteries in Europe, an open-air museum of 19th- and 20th-century sculpture, with galleries, stairways and a wood.
The storyAmong the tombs of nobles and shipowners stands the statue of Caterina Campodonico, a working-class woman who sold strings of hazelnuts and ring-shaped biscuits at fairs: all her life she put her earnings aside to have a monument carved, which she commissioned in 1881 from the sculptor Lorenzo Orengo. The statue shows her holding her wares, with the poem she chose herself below. Giuseppe Mazzini and Constance Lloyd, Oscar Wilde's wife, are also buried at Staglieno.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Genoa and the BeiguaTiglietoA stone abbey in an inland clearing, on the banks of the Orba stream, with a medieval bridge and a large meadow.
The storyFounded in 1120, it is considered the first Cistercian abbey outside France: the monks came from Burgundy a few years after the order was born and reclaimed the valley. After centuries of neglect and use as a farm, the church has been restored and returned to the Cistercian monks.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · Portofino and the TigullioVarese LigureA circular medieval village in the upper Vara valley, with houses arranged in a ring around a square and a castle of the Fieschi family.
The storyThe Borgo Rotondo began as a fortified market: the houses formed a continuous wall with shops on the ground floor, on the road from the sea to the Po plain. In the 1990s Varese Ligure bet on the environment and organic farming, becoming one of the first municipalities in Europe with an environmental certification and producing organic cheese and meat.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · Cinque Terre and the Gulf of PoetsLericiA tiny fishing village clinging to the rocks, with the church of San Giorgio almost in the sea.
The storyLegend says that one night a giant octopus climbed out of the sea and rang the bell of San Giorgio with its tentacles, waking the village in time to fight off a Saracen pirate raid. Since then the octopus has been Tellaro's symbol. The writer Mario Soldati chose to spend his last years here.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · Riviera delle Palme and FinaleNoliA medieval village of towers and alleys facing a beach, with the Romanesque church of San Paragorio.
The storyFor six centuries, from 1192 to 1797, Noli was an independent republic, allied with Genoa but with its own laws and its own bishop, until Napoleon brought its history to an end. Of the many towers built by its nobles, some still stand in the centre.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Nature · Riviera delle Palme and FinaleToiranoCaves of stalactites and stalagmites that preserve traces of prehistoric people and cave bears.
The storyIn 1950 some local boys opened a passage in the Bàsura cave and found a world sealed for millennia: the bones of cave bears and the prints of feet, hands and knees left by a small group of people, children among them, who came in with torches some fourteen thousand years ago. It is one of the few places in the world where you can see how Palaeolithic people moved.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · Riviera dei FioriSanremoA ruined village on the hill above Sanremo, brought back to life by a community of artists, with shops and workshops among roofless walls.
The storyOn 23 February 1887, Ash Wednesday, an earthquake struck the Riviera while the villagers were at Mass: the church collapsed and the village was abandoned and rebuilt further down the valley. For over seventy years Bussana stood empty, until around 1960 Italian and foreign artists occupied the houses and founded the 'international artists' village', still inhabited today.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · Riviera dei FioriTrioraA stone village at almost 800 metres in the Argentina valley, with covered alleys, carved doorways and a museum devoted to witchcraft.
The storyBetween 1587 and 1589, after a famine, some women of the village were accused of witchcraft: the trial involved inquisitors and Genoese authorities, and several women died in prison or under torture. Triora has been called 'the Salem of Italy' ever since. The village is also famous for Triora bread, which keeps for a long time.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Riviera dei FioriVentimigliaA wall of red rock above the sea, a few steps from the French border, with caves inhabited by humans for hundreds of thousands of years.
The storyIn the 19th and 20th centuries, partly funded by Prince Albert I of Monaco, excavations in the caves uncovered Palaeolithic burials covered in ochre and shells, such as the 'triple burial' of the Barma Grande, and a series of small female figurines, the Venuses of Balzi Rossi. The museum next to the caves displays the finds.
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