La Riviera
Sanremo
Bordighera
Ospedaletti
The Hinterland |
The Intemelia Mountain Community possesses some of the most characteristic Mediaeval villages in western Liguria. This applies in particular to those of Airole, Castelvittorio, the Terra district of Dolceacqua and Pigna - in which the houses developed around a rise, usually once occupied by a castle, in a number of spiralling circles. Perinaldo and Baiardo are elongated villages that wind along a central road up a mountain crest. Apricale is a fortified village on a ridge, while Isolabona and Rocchetta Nervina are fortified centres on the bottom of the valley. The village of Olivetta San Michele is strangely divided in two separate nucleus; the mountain one of Seborga could be called a "high village". Some of Ventimiglia's hamlets (Bevera, Torri, Trucco-Verrandi, Sealza, Sant'Antonio, San Pancrazio) have Mediaeval origins and can be described as small rural villages of a mixed type born close to cultivated fields.
In the Olivo Valley for centuries have grown Taggia olives to extract first class oil. A refined crop, almost an age-old art, but not the only one (wine from the grapes, lavender from the fields, milk from the pastures). In terms of relationships and community encounters, the traditional country calendar is the same as that which governs work in the fields and that periodically rewrites the humble but tasty menu of the Ligurian table, entwined with the canonical calendar of patron saints' feasts and numerous religious processions.
In the Olivo valleys it is pleasant and relaxing to be lulled by the music of nature: the flowing water of the rivers, the rustling branches of the olive trees and - in the woods - the joyful birdsong. Breathe in the intense fragrances of the undergrowth and contemplate the charm of the scenery. These peaceful spots are conducive to thought and dreams, delightful islands of peace and tranquillity. Above the "fasce" - terraces laboriously created with dry walls by generations of peasants - growing at the base of the olive trees is a multicoloured spontaneous and sweet-smelling flora of violets, irises, daffodils, wild orchids, gladioli and lilies. |