Riviera dei Fiori

The Riviera dei Fiori is Liguria’s sunniest western arc, the coast of flowers stretching from Imperia towards the French border. Beyond the resort strip lies a layered hinterland: a convent safeguarding Renaissance masterpieces, a village that styles itself an independent principality with its own mint, an astronomer’s observatory, and a seaside cycleway on an old railway.

Why visit

Treat the Riviera dei Fiori as a landscape to traverse rather than a beach to occupy. Its single best invention is the cycle path on the old Genoa-Ventimiglia railway: roughly twenty-four kilometres of flat, safe riding between San Lorenzo al Mare and Ospedaletti, passing through tunnels and along the sea through a string of small resort towns — riding you can manage with children, then reward with lunch. Away from the water, the hills hold surprises of real substance. The Dominican convent at Taggia guards one of the most important art collections in Liguria, including a Parmigianino recovered after a spectacular theft. Seborga, perched above the coast, keeps its whimsical claim to sovereign independence alive with coins, ceremonies and a baroque parish church. And Perinaldo, birthplace of the astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, runs a public observatory in his name. Few stretches of coast pack so much variety into half an hour’s driving.

Character and history

The Riviera dei Fiori earned its name in the nineteenth century, when its mild winters made it a laboratory for flower growing and a refuge for northern Europeans; the greenhouses and carnation fields around Sanremo and Ospedaletti are its economic inheritance. Its deeper story is one of borders and beliefs. Taggia’s convent of San Domenico, founded in 1460 by the preacher Cristoforo da Milano, stood for centuries at the junction of two cultural worlds — the County of Nice and western Liguria — and Dominican theologians travelling through Europe left it a treasury of paintings, polyptychs and books; it survived a Barbary pirate raid in 1564 and the suppression of religious orders before its friars finally departed in 2008. In the hills, Seborga’s villagers still celebrate a medieval principality once ruled by monks, whose mint struck luigini coins in the seventeenth century; the claim has no legal standing, but the pageantry is genuine and beloved. Perinaldo honours Giovanni Domenico Cassini, born there in the seventeenth century before he left to direct the Paris Observatory, and its hillside streets look across the ridge towards the sea the flowers grow above.

What to see

Start inland at the Convent of San Domenico and Museum: its church and convent rooms hold five polyptychs and frescoes by Ludovico Brea alongside works from Parmigianino’s Adoration of the Magi — stolen in 1994 and recovered nine years later — to Baroque canvases, and the FAI heritage trust lists it among Italy’s treasured places at risk. Drive up to Seborga for the baroque Parish Church of San Martino, built around 1615 and given its present facade two centuries later, and the neighbouring Museum of the Luigini and Seborga Mint in the Palazzo dei Monaci, where the monks’ coins and an old minting press tell the village’s favourite story. Higher still, the hill town of Perinaldo keeps the G.D. Cassini Astronomical Observatory in its town hall — a domed telescope open to the public year-round with guided day and evening sessions. Back at the shore, rent bikes for the Riviera dei Fiori Cycle Path, the converted railway line threading tunnels and sea views between San Lorenzo al Mare, Santo Stefano al Mare, Riva Ligure, Arma di Taggia, Sanremo and Ospedaletti.

How to experience

Make the cycle path your spine and the hill villages your excursions. Hire bikes near San Lorenzo al Mare and ride a section each morning — Sanremo to Ospedaletti for the long sea views, the Taggia stretch for villages and gelato stops — and note that short sections occasionally close for maintenance, so check the official path site before setting out. Devote a slow morning to the Taggia convent; volunteer guides unlock the art, and the polyptychs reward unhurried looking. Save Seborga for a late afternoon: time your visit to a ceremony or flag-raising if the calendar allows, and enjoy the belvedere towards the French coast. On a clear evening, book an observatory session at Perinaldo — pairing a Riviera sunset with telescope viewing is the area’s most unexpected pleasure.

Practical planning

The A10 motorway and the coastal railway serve the whole area, with Sanremo the main rail-and-bus hub; the hill villages of Seborga and Perinaldo are reached by winding but well-surfaced roads, best driven slowly. The cycle path has hire shops and access points at each town it touches. Check pistaciclabilerivieradeifiori.it for path status and the observatory’s own site for session dates; the convent’s visiting arrangements are published locally. Spring and autumn suit both riding and hill walks; summer belongs to the sea and the evening passeggiata.

Nearby places

Sanremo is the area’s capital of resorts and gardens, Imperia anchors the eastern end, Bordighera faces the French frontier with its palm groves, and the medieval stone village of Dolceacqua makes the classic inland excursion.