Soggiorna
Italians know Sanremo for one week a year, and it is not the week that justifies the trip. The Festival takes over the Teatro Ariston, on via Matteotti, where it has been held since 1977; for the other three hundred and fifty-eight days the city is something else, and that something else is why a guide is needed.
Sanremo is a late-nineteenth-century Russian and English resort with a medieval quarter above it and a railway-turned-cycle-path below. The three have nothing to do with one another, and they all sit within four kilometres.
The city of the empresses
The seafront promenade is called Corso Imperatrice, after the Russian empress Maria Alexandrovna, who fell for Sanremo and gave it the palm trees that are still there.
A little higher, near the Casino, five coloured domes: the church of Christ the Saviour, the Russian church, built at the wish of the empress mother Maria Feodorovna — mother of Nicholas II — and consecrated to Christ the Saviour, St Seraphim of Sarov and St Catherine the Martyr.
The Casino dates from 1905: it opened on 14 January, to a design by the French architect Eugène Ferret, and it is the oldest still operating in Italy, one of four in the country. White Liberty façade, Murano glass chandeliers. Even people who do not gamble walk past it and understand what kind of city this was meant to be.
And there is Villa Nobel, where Alfred Nobel spent his last years and carried out his final experiments: now a museum, and the thing almost nobody knows about Sanremo.
The medieval city: La Pigna
Above the nineteenth-century town is La Pigna, the old quarter: lanes and staircases spiralling upwards — hence the name, the pine cone — to a point from which you see the sea, the roofs and the hinterland as far as Monte Bignone.
It is the finest part and the least tended, and that should be said: La Pigna is not an old centre restored for visitors. You walk through it knowing it is a lived-in quarter, with stretches polished up and stretches not.
The detail of what to see is in Sanremo beyond the Festival.
The railway that became a path
In 2001 the single-track railway that ran along the coast was dismantled and moved inland. On its route the cycle path of the "Riviera dei Fiori" coastal park was built: 24 kilometres between Ospedaletti and San Lorenzo al Mare, flat, traffic-free, along the sea. After the connecting works of spring 2023, 28 kilometres are passable between Imperia and Ospedaletti.
It is the thing that most changes a holiday here, and in guidebooks it is usually one line. It is not a sports route: it is a walking and cycling corridor linking the coastal towns, and you use it to get to the beach, to dinner in the next town, or to Bussana.
Who it suits, and who it does not
It suits anyone who wants a real city with the sea, open all year, with the Belle Époque on its back and the cycle path in front. It suits low-season travellers particularly: there is no dead season here of the kind villages have.
It does not suit anyone after the picture-postcard Ligurian village — that is Cervo, or Bussana Vecchia — nor anyone imagining Caribbean sand: the shore alternates sand and pebbles.
When to go
- Spring: the best. This is the city of flowers and in spring you see why.
- June and September: good sea, lower prices, no queues.
- July and August: full, like the whole coast.
- February: the Festival. If you are not coming for it, know that hotels and prices feel it.
How long you need
One day for La Pigna, the Casino and Corso Imperatrice. Two to add the cycle path or a day at the sea. Three if you also want Bussana Vecchia and Villa Nobel without rushing.
The places to stay in Sanremo on this site are contacted directly.
Getting there, and getting around without a car
Since 2001 Sanremo's station has been underground and in the centre: you come out and you are already in town, without the transfer many nearby places require. The line is the Genova-Ventimiglia. The old track along the sea has become the coastal park cycle path, 24 kilometres between Ospedaletti and San Lorenzo al Mare: it is not only a sporting outing, it is the simplest way to move along the coast, and it does not close in winter. One thing to plan around: the Festival is in February, and hotels, trains and parking all feel it, even for those who are not coming for it.
Frequently asked questions
What is there to see in Sanremo besides the Festival?
The 1905 Casino, the Russian church of Christ the Saviour with its five domes, Corso Imperatrice with the palms given by the empress Maria Alexandrovna, the old quarter of La Pigna, and Villa Nobel, where Alfred Nobel spent his last years.
Why is Sanremo called the city of flowers?
For the flower growing that built its economy and that gives the Riviera dei Fiori its name, the coast between Imperia and the French border. Spring is when the reason for the name is clearest.
How long do you need to visit Sanremo?
One day for the centre — La Pigna, the Casino, Corso Imperatrice. Two days to add the cycle path or a day at the sea, three to reach Bussana Vecchia and Villa Nobel as well.
What is La Pigna in Sanremo?
The medieval old quarter, made of lanes and staircases spiralling upwards — hence the name, the pine cone — above the nineteenth-century city. From the top you see the sea, the roofs and the hinterland as far as Monte Bignone. It is a lived-in quarter, not an old centre remade for visitors.
Can you visit Sanremo out of season?
Yes, and it is one of its advantages: it is a city that lives all year and does not empty out the way seaside resorts do. In February, though, there is the Festival, and hotels and prices feel it.