A Riviera of hills covered in woods and carved out by short, steep rivers.  Hills where the sea is just a backcloth to the scenery, or even completely invisible, hills where you will find villages that tell stories about the old stone walls and centuries-old rural life.  Ceriana is one such village.

The short Valle Armea descends from the mountainous buttresses behind Sanremo and works its way, like an unwelcome guest, between the town of songs and the beaches of Arma di taggia.  It has only two villages, both on the right-hand side: Poggio di Sanremo, near the sea and Ceriana half way between the sea and the mountains.  The valley created by the Area river is a strange one: to start with, it doesn't have a road at the bottom of the valley unless you count the fairly recent one at the river mouth.  The provincial road from Aurelia climbs up to Poggio, arriving at Ceriana along a meandering road halfway up the hillside and continues up as far as the ridge that links the Aurelia Valley to the bordering Argentina and Nervia valleys.  Traveling along that road means leaving behind in a flash the scenery of the sea with its azure light stretching to infinity, to find oneself plunged head-first into a totally green, forbidding, wild world that is silent and almost prehistoric.  It is inconceivable to think that it is so close to the modern life of the coast as it actually is.  After one o the bends, a handful of brown houses appear, clinging to each other and, all together, to the steep side of the hill, with a church tower rising to the sky here and there; it is a majestic, dense mass of humble and noble buildings, splendid in their antiquity: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Ceriana.

Ceriana certainly isn't almost 28 centuries old like the Urbe, Rome, but it is one of the most ancient towns of the Riviera  dei Fiori: even if a the few Roman ruins, hidden by the subsequent medieval development, appear to confirm that once upon a time, on this rocky spur, 300 meters above sea level, half way up the Valley Armea, was the site of the Castrum Coeliannae, a fortified town founded by or at least belonging to the Celii family, who, on the highest point of the hill had build a Temple of Apollo and a watch tower, as well as their own house.  Centuries went by and the medieval village developed around the original centre, which appears to have been mentioned in documents starting from 979, when it was part of the territry of the Curtis Sancti Romuli, i.e. Sanremo; it belonged to the Counts of Ventimilglia who gave it, together with Sanremo, to the bishop of Genoa in 1038.  Then it belonged to Oberto Doria and Giorgio De Maria, Genoese landowners and finally to the Republic of Genoa from 1359, under which Ceriana was allowed to govern with its own statutes.  Relations with the capital, however, were never idyllic because of the Genoese imposed heavy taxes and revolts were frequent.  Today the municipality of Ceriana has about 1,300 inhabitants.

 San Remo, at the heart of Liguria, was well known in it's heyday by the elite.  Tchaikovsky composed there, Monet painted there and the British upper crust built ravishing villas that still line the Corso delgli Inglesi.  One frequent visitor was the tsaress Maria Alexandrovna who inspired the building of the Russian Orthodox Church situated near to the city's casino.  Later Gary Grant and Grace Kelly breezed in as did Sinatra and Ava Gardner.

 Another famous spot well worth a visit is Bussana Vecchia, a town so badly damaged in the earthquake of 1887 that it was abandoned by the survivors.  The village ruins remained undisturbed until 1960 when an Italian sculptor, Clizia, set up shop amid the crumbling stone.  Other artists followed and now it is a beautiful place to browse.  However, there is no public transport to Bussana Vecchia so, if you don't drive, you'll need to take a taxi to get there.

 Other places to visit along the coast include Diano Marina (a resort featured in the book ‘Extra Virgin’ by Annie Hawes);  Dolceaqua (the bridge across the river here was painted by Monet); Laigueglia (a visit to the old town is a must) and Ventimiglia. for the famous street market every Friday.  For other places of interest read ‘Portraits of the Riviera’ by Carolyn McKenzie.

If you decide not to hire a car but to use public transport, you will find all of these places of interest within easy reach by bus or train from San Remo.

 Tourist Office Website of the Riviera

Diano Marina