Sanremo

A resort town on Italy's “Riviera of Flowers”, where the casino, an onion-domed Orthodox church and the La Pigna old town mingle, a seaside cycle path runs along the coast, and stone hill villages like Dolceacqua and the Hanbury Botanical Gardens lie nearby.

Sanremo, at the western end of Italy's Liguria region, is the main town of the “Riviera dei Fiori” (Riviera of Flowers). It lies about 20 km east of the French border and 45 km from Nice, backed by the last foothills of the Maritime Alps. The climate is mild — even in winter it rarely drops below 10°C — and since the 19th century it has been a favourite winter retreat for European aristocrats; it is also famous across Italy for flower growing and for the Sanremo Music Festival held every February. The best times to visit are March–June (flower season) and September–October; summer beaches are lively but accommodation is pricey, and rooms are almost impossible to find during the February festival. The town divides into three parts: on the seafront, the casino, the Russian Orthodox church, Corso Matteotti and the Ariston Theatre make up the Belle Époque resort district; on the hillside to the north is the medieval La Pigna old town, layered like a pine cone, leading up to the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Costa; and on the east side are the gardens of Villa Ormond and Villa Nobel. A roughly 24 km seaside cycle path, built on a disused railway line, runs right through town and is the most distinctive experience here. Classic day trips: Bussana Vecchia on the eastern outskirts, which became an artists' village after an earthquake; west to Bordighera, Ventimiglia's Friday market, the Hanbury Botanical Gardens and the prehistoric Balzi Rossi caves; the “most beautiful villages” of the Nervia Valley such as Dolceacqua, Apricale and Perinaldo; north to Triora, the witches' village; and east to Taggia and the seaside hill village of Cervo. Monaco, Menton and Nice are also within an hour's drive but are covered under the Nice & Côte d'Azur destination. Getting there: the nearest airport is Nice Côte d'Azur, from where trains (changing at Ventimiglia) or buses take about 1–1.5 hours; Sanremo's train station is inside a tunnel, about a 10-minute walk from the centre. Public transport to the hill villages is infrequent, so driving is more flexible, though the mountain roads are narrow and winding. Plan to stay 3–4 days.

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