Riviera di Ponente: Genoa to the French border

Route description

Leave Genoa westwards on the SS1 Aurelia, which follows the coast all the way to France; the A10 motorway runs parallel above it and is quicker but tolled. Noli, a former sea republic, keeps its towers and a Romanesque church, and the cliffs of Capo Noli hang over the road beyond it.

At Finale Ligure turn inland to walled Finalborgo, then continue to Toirano for the show caves with prehistoric footprints. Albenga has a cluster of brick towers and one of the oldest baptisteries in Liguria, and the plain behind it is covered in greenhouses and vegetable fields.

Cervo is a small village of lanes climbing to a Baroque church with a curved facade, where a chamber-music festival is held in summer. The flower town of Sanremo follows, with its casino and the steep medieval quarter of La Pigna.

Just before Ventimiglia head up the Nervia valley to Dolceacqua for the castle and the bridge Monet painted, then return to the coast for the Hanbury Gardens at La Mortola. The Aurelia is congested in July and August, and villages are tight for large vehicles, so use car parks at their edges.