If you are in the mood for a European tourist destination, why not consider the Liguria region of northern Italy, commonly known as the Italian Riviera? This thin strip of land lies on the Ligurian Sea, close to Monaco and the French Riviera. While Liguria is hardly undiscovered, its crowds are quite a bit smaller than those next door. It is home to many little towns or villages and one international port city almost smack dab in the center of the coast. This article explores Liguria west of Genoa, or as the locals call it, Riviera di Ponente (The Riviera of the Setting Sun.) Be sure to read our other articles in this series: eastern Liguria, Genoa, and Cinque Terre, five little seaside villages that just might steal your heart.

We start our tour just west of Genoa at the seaside town of Pegli. We continue southwest down the coast to the Albisola Marina, Imperia, Bussana Vecchia, San Remo, Bordighera, and finally the Giardini Botanici Hanbury just west of the French Border.

As Liguria's capital Genoa grew it almost swallowed little Pegli. You can walk around and see vestiges of its past. Its two main attractions are Villa Doria and Villa Durazzo Pallavicini. The Sixteenth Century Villa Doria is now home to the Genoa Naval and Maritime Museum honoring the world's most famous sailor, Christopher Columbus. The Nineteenth Century Villa Durazzo Pallavicini houses the Museo Civico di Archeologica Ligure (Ligurian Civic Archeological Museum) with a beautiful park, lakes, grottoes, and a medieval-style castle. Albisola Marina, population fifty-five hundred, is famous for ceramics. I am told that experts can identify Albisolan ceramics from their shape, designs, and colors. In any case walk down the Lungomare delgi Artisti (Artists Seafront) near the beach and you'll find beautiful souvenirs of Liguria. Stop by the luxurious Eighteenth Century Villa Durazzo-Faraggiana to see. Don't forget to look down and admire its floor tiles. It's close to the Baroque Parish Church of Nostra Signora della Concordia (Our Lady of Harmony).

Imperia, population forty thousand, is really two cities in one. Oneglia is an oil refining and pharmaceuticals center. So why would you want to visit there? Its Museo dell'Olivo (Olive Oil Museum) is devoted to that most delicious of oil, spanning nations and centuries. The location is quite fitting; at one point little Oneglia controlled the oil commerce for all Europe. Imperia's other city, Porto Maurizio, has a medieval city center and some palaces. The relatively recent Cathedral, completed in 1832, is the largest church in all Liguria. The city hosts the Naval Museum of Western Ligura known for its collection of shipbuilding tools.

Bussana Vecchia is an artist's colony that emerged from a ghost town. In 1887 an earthquake destroyed a village in the Ligurian hills east of San Remo (see below). The survivors built huts near the entrance to the village but abandoned them after seven years. For more than six decades this entire area was abandoned. Then in the early 1960s an Italian artist started the Colonia Internazionale degli Artisti (International Artist Colony) for dancers, musicians, painters, sculptors, and writers. As true artists they respected the medieval characteristics of the buildings, used bricks and stones reclaimed from the rubble, and left the original facades. Don't miss it.

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