The best olive oil towns that eat well in Liguria
Liguria's oil is thin, sweet and low in bitterness, pressed from taggiasca olives grown on terraces held up by dry stone walls that climb the valleys behind the coast. It goes into pesto, into the flat sheets of focaccia sold by weight in the morning, into stockfish stewed with pine nuts and potatoes, into the raw slick over a plate of anchovies. Harvest runs through late autumn and winter, when the nets go down under the trees and the frantoi work through the night, and the new oil sold at the mill door tastes of green almond. The houses in these valleys are tall and narrow, painted ochre and pink, stacked along the contour lines with the olives above and the sea below.
Most people arrive in Liguria for the Cinque Terre, and they arrive at the same hours, on the same trains, with the same photograph in mind. The five villages are genuinely beautiful and genuinely small, which is the problem: the footpaths queue, the harbours fill, and lunch is a matter of whatever table is free. Portofino, further west, does the same trick with more money and less room. Very little of the eating in those places has much to do with the olive groves standing behind them.
The terraces do not stop where the crowds do. They run west along the whole Riviera di Ponente and inland up the Argentina and Arroscia valleys, where the mills are working operations rather than exhibits, and east along the Riviera di Levante to the towns at the mouths of the Entella and the Vara. The towns here belong to the national association of olive-oil communes, and each has a table a dining guide thought worth naming, which is a reasonable way to eat your way along a coast. Fewer people go, and the oil is closer to where it was pressed.
Of the 54 communes we have mapped in Liguria, 8 qualify as olive oil towns that eat well: each belongs to the national association of olive-oil towns, and a dining guide has named a table in each. The smallest, Badalucco, has 1,072 residents.
Two more lists worth reading alongside this one: The best olive oil towns you can reach by train in Liguria and The 6 best olive oil towns within 90 minutes of Genova.
Badalucco
Why visit Badalucco
Badalucco sits at 179 meters in the middle Valle Argentina, fifteen kilometers north of Imperia. The torrent that gives the valley its name runs in a wide bend below the village.
The site changed hands between Ligures and Rome in 181 BC, became a fief of the Counts of Ventimiglia, and passed to the Republic of Genova in 1259. The seventeenth century rebuilt the parish Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta e San Giorgio in full Baroque, with a square bell tower and a fifteenth-century polyptych attributed to Giovanni Canavesio.
The caruggi of stone houses are painted with contemporary murals and trompe-l'oeil, a more recent layer over the medieval shell. The Rundin bean, an indigenous variety grown on the terraces, is a Slow Food Presidium.
Stoccafisso alla badalucchese, stockfish stewed in tomato and olives, is the dish: the third Sunday of September brings the Stockfish Festival to the square.
Umami, Cian de Bià have been named by a guide.
What to see in Badalucco
- Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta e San Giorgio. Seventeenth-century Baroque parish church with a square bell tower, holding a fifteenth-century polyptych attributed to Giovanni Canavesio and a seventeenth-century wooden crucifix.
- Chiesa di San Niccolò. Hilltop church above the old village, on the site of a former noble castle that served as a lookout over the valley.
- Ponte sull'Argentina. Stone bridge across the torrent that wraps the village, connecting the centro storico to the valley road.
How to get to Badalucco
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Genova is roughly 122 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the dry months in the Argentina Valley. The terraces above the village hold olive groves, the Rundin bean, and pockets of grapevine. July and August push into the low thirties, but the valley keeps a few degrees cooler than the coast.
Dolceacqua
Why visit Dolceacqua
The village sits twenty kilometers from the French border and nine inland from Bordighera, in the Val Nervia. The river of the same name splits it into two: the older Terra on the left bank, its lanes stepping up toward the castle, and the newer Borgo on the right, where the parish church stands.
The bridge is what makes the two halves legible as one village rather than two settlements facing each other across water. The Doria held the fief from 1270, traded it with the Savoy, the French and the Spanish, and let the castle go by the mid-eighteenth century, so what remains above the rooftops is a ruin rather than a seat of power.
The surrounding hills still work, producing Rossese di Dolceacqua. In January, the Festa di San Sebastiano carries a laurel tree hung with consecrated wafers through the lanes of both banks.
The village, in other words, is still organized exactly as Monet found it in 1884: a river, two banks, and a bridge between them, with the working hillside and the ruined fortress as the constants either side of the water.
CASAeBOTTEGA, A Viassa, Casa e Bottega have been named by a guide.
What to see in Dolceacqua
- Ponte Vecchio. Thirty-three meters across the river, the span that carried Monet's eye from the water up to the fortress above. It is what joins the village's two banks into one place.
- Castello dei Doria. Ruined above the rooftops, with a partial restoration underway. The climb up through the old quarter ends at its walls, looking back down over both halves of the village.
- Terra. Older half of the village on the left bank, a vertical network of carruggi climbing under arched passageways to the castle.
How to get to Dolceacqua
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Genova is roughly 130 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June brings green hills, mild evenings, and the first Rossese tastings in the cellars along the road to Apricale. July and August are warmer than the coast, often 30 degrees in the riverbed; the village stays cool inside the carruggi but full of day-trippers from Bordighera and Ventimiglia. September is dry and clear, the best month for the bridge in the afternoon light.
Levanto
Why visit Levanto
Levanto sits at sea level on the Ligurian coast, twenty kilometers northwest of La Spezia and just outside the Cinque Terre National Park. The Cinque Terre Express train stops here every half hour on its way to the five villages, but Levanto has the things they do not: a long sand-and-gravel beach with Bandiera Blu status, a flat centro storico, and a surf break that local guides classify as one of the few big-wave spots in Italy.
The Chiesa di Sant'Andrea, built in 1222, fronts the old town with horizontal bands of black and white marble and a large rose window. The thirteenth-century Loggia Comunale, on the same piazza, was awarded a UNESCO peace and culture title in 2007.
Casa Restani, on Via Grillo, is a surviving medieval merchant house with the ground floor where goods from the harbor were stored. Levanto holds Cittaslow, Bandiera Blu, Parco Nazionale, and Città dell'Olio at once.
La Sosta di Ottone III have been named by a guide.
What to see in Levanto
- Chiesa di Sant'Andrea. Parish church built in 1222 in Ligurian Gothic style, with horizontal bands of black and white marble and a large rose window over the main door.
- Castello di Levanto. Thirteenth-century defensive castle on the hillside, still intact but privately owned and closed to the public.
- Loggia Comunale. Thirteenth-century arcaded loggia on the main piazza, awarded a UNESCO title in 2007 as a monument of culture and peace.
How to get to Levanto
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 72 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the dry months. The sea warms enough for swimming by late May. The surf builds in autumn and winter when Atlantic systems push swell into the gulf.
Sestri Levante
Why visit Sestri Levante
Sestri Levante sits at the head of the Tigullio gulf, forty kilometers southeast of Genova, on a former island the Gromolo river silted into a peninsula by the eighteenth century. Roman Segesta Tigullorum was the predecessor; the town joined the Republic of Genova in 1133.
The peninsula splits the coast into two bays that face different ways and carry different names. To the north lies the long beach known as the Bay of Fables, named by a television host in a 1950s broadcast for the Danish writer who stayed here in 1833.
To the south lies the smaller, quieter bay, named by a Ligurian poet in 1919. Between them, on the high ground of the peninsula, stands the old watchtower where an inventor ran some of his most advanced shortwave radio work, work significant enough that the Navy renamed the gulf itself for him.
A town this small holds a beach with a literary name, a bay with a poet's name, and a headland with an engineer's name, three separate claims to attention pressed into one stretch of coast shaped by a silted river.
Pasticcerie Rossignotti, Rezzano Cucina e Vino, Baia del Silenzio and 4 more have been named by a guide.
What to see in Sestri Levante
- Baia del Silenzio. Smaller southern bay enclosed by colorful seventeenth- and eighteenth-century houses, named by poet Giovanni Descalzo in 1919.
- Baia delle Favole. Long northern beach and the Bandiera Blu stretch of the town, its name recalling Hans Christian Andersen, who looked out over the water from his inn.
- Torre Marconi. Old watchtower on the heights of the peninsula where Guglielmo Marconi carried out shortwave radio experiments in 1933 and 1934.
How to get to Sestri Levante
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 44 minutes away by road.
✷ We have written about Sestri Levante
“A steep hill falls into the sea. The houses are crammed on the slope and painted in bright colors because they are old, packed tight, and need help. There is a small port if the cove allows it and a bigger port if the cove is generous. There is a small piazza around a small church, with maybe four restaurants, three bars, and a gelato place. There is no space for a grand square, because there is no space for grand anything in Liguria.”
Read our piece on Sestri Levante →Tigullio Roadtrip | Four Versions of the Same Liguria
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the dry months on the Tigullio. The sea warms enough for swimming by late May. The Premio Andersen children's literature festival runs in June with author events across the town. Sagra dei Testaieu e Asado a Montedomenico falls in August.
Chiavari
Why visit Chiavari
Chiavari sits on the Riviera di Levante where the Entella meets the Gulf of Tigullio, thirty kilometers east of Genoa. A pre-Roman necropolis from the eighth and seventh centuries BC has been excavated under the centre.
Genoa raised a castle here in 1147 and laid out the medieval town as a grid of porticoed streets, both sides of the carruggio continuous under Gothic columns, the most complete thirteenth-century Genoese commercial plan in Liguria. The Chiavari family produced two doges of the Republic.
In 1801 Napoleon made the city the capital of the Apennines department, one of three administrative units that absorbed Liguria into the French Empire. The Cattedrale di Nostra Signora dell'Orto was built 1613-1633 after a Marian apparition on 2 July 1610 to a local citizen, Sebastiano Descalzo; the neoclassical marble portico modelled on the Pantheon went up in 1841 as a vow for survival from cholera.
Chiavari became a diocese in 1892 and the church a minor basilica in 1904. Slate work, silk weaving and the eponymous Chiavari chair are still made in town.
Antica Osteria Luchin, Gran caffè Defilla, Da Felice and 2 more have been named by a guide.
What to see in Chiavari
- Cattedrale di Nostra Signora dell'Orto. Built 1613-1633 after a Marian apparition in 1610, neoclassical Pantheon-style portico added 1841 as a cholera vow, minor basilica from 1904.
- Caruggio porticato. Thirteenth-century medieval commercial street, both sides continuous under Gothic-columned porticoes, the most intact Genoese plan in Liguria.
- Castello di Chiavari. Genoese fortress built in 1147 above the original town, irregular polygonal walls, partly absorbed into later residential buildings.
How to get to Chiavari
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 32 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September to October are the working months: Bandiera Blu beach swimmable from late May, the seafront walk to Lavagna open in any weather, evenings on Piazza Mazzini under 25 degrees. The Sagra del Pesce in Lavagna next door and the Chiavari book festival in late September draw weekend crowds. July and August fill the lungomare with Milanese and Genovese families, and accommodation runs at three times shoulder rates.
Andora
Why visit Andora
Andora sits on the Val Merula in the Riviera di Ponente, the westernmost commune of the Province of Savona before crossing into Imperia. The original settlement was Borgata Castello, perched on a hill called Paraxu set back from the coast because Saracen raids made the shore unsafe.
The Clavesana counts raised the castle on Paraxu around 1170, and beside it the late-thirteenth-century Romanesque-Gothic church of Saints Giacomo and Filippo, built in Capo Mele stone with a deep central polyphore and a rose window. Together they are considered the most significant medieval ensemble on the western Ligurian coast.
The modern town moved to the Aurelia coast road after the raids stopped. Colla Micheri, the hilltop hamlet bought and restored by Thor Heyerdahl of Kon-Tiki fame in the 1960s, sits above the modern beachfront.
The Spighe Verdi recognition flags the green network running through the commune; the olive grove network covers the Val Merula slopes.
Vignamare have been named by a guide.
What to see in Andora
- Castello dei Clavesana. Ruined castle raised by the Clavesana counts around 1170 on the Paraxu hill, the first nucleus of medieval Andora, in Capo Mele stone.
- Chiesa dei Santi Giacomo e Filippo. Late thirteenth-century Romanesque-Gothic church beside the castle in Borgata Castello, central polyphore and rose window in Capo Mele stone.
- Colla Micheri. Hilltop hamlet of Saracen-era stone houses around the church of San Sebastiano, bought and restored by Thor Heyerdahl in the 1960s.
How to get to Andora
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 83 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the strongest months on Andora's coast. The olive groves come into harvest from late October into November. July and August fill the Aurelia beachfront and the Riviera dei Fiori traffic doubles. Street Food Time falls in August.
Lavagna
Why visit Lavagna
Lavagna sits at sea level on the eastern Tigullio, thirty-five kilometers southeast of Genova. The slate quarried from the San Giacomo mountains behind the town roofed the Genovese palazzi and lined the schoolrooms of half of Italy, which is why the Italian word for chalkboard is also lavagna.
Around the year 1000 the Counts of Lavagna held this territory, and the family that descended from them, the Fieschi, rose from it to produce two popes. The frazione of San Salvatore sits above the main town, holding the basilica that one of those popes ordered built in bands of white marble and slate.
Down at sea level, the old center folds around the staircase and square where, on 14 August, the town reenacts a thirteenth-century wedding with the Torta dei Fieschi, a giant cake carried out to the crowd. The beach holds Bandiera Blu at the opposite edge of town, near the port.
A town built on a stone that traveled far beyond it, and on a family that did the same.
Impronta d'Acqua, Raieü, Aria and 1 more have been named by a guide.
What to see in Lavagna
- Basilica di Santo Stefano. Parish church rebuilt over a sixth-century foundation, crowning the main square at the top of a wide staircase where the annual cake pageant begins its procession.
- Basilica di San Salvatore dei Fieschi. Thirteenth-century basilica in the frazione of San Salvatore, ordered by Pope Innocent IV in 1244, façade in alternating bands of white marble and local slate.
- Spiaggia di Lavagna. Long Bandiera Blu beach on the Tigullio, with one of the largest tourist ports in northern Italy at the western end.
How to get to Lavagna
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 44 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the dry months on the Tigullio. The beach water warms enough for swimming by late May. The 14 August Torta dei Fieschi is the central event of the summer: period costumes, procession from the Basilica di San Salvatore down to Piazza Marconi, and a giant cake distributed to anyone who matches a paired ticket. La Torta dei Fieschi falls in August.
Taggia
Why visit Taggia
Taggia sits where the Argentina valley narrows toward the Ligurian coast, fifteen kilometers west of Imperia. Iron Age tombs have been found in the territory, and the small port at the mouth was called Costa Balenae in antiquity, a coastal settlement distinct from the medieval town that grew up along the river above it.
The Benedictine monks of Lérins came in the seventh and eighth centuries and, by tradition, brought the olive cultivar that took the town's name and now covers most of western Liguria's hillsides. The medieval centro storico runs along three parallel streets above the river, and sixteenth-century walls fortified the town against Ottoman raids that struck the coast in 1560 and 1564, the same period that produced the bridge's later arches and the walled gates still standing.
Taggia carries the Borghi più belli badge and the Città dell'Olio designation as the source of the Taggiasca name. The valley town, the coastal port, and the olive-covered hillsides are really one settlement pattern read at three scales: a river crossing fortified against the sea, feeding an oil that carried the name outward long after the raids stopped.
La Conchiglia have been named by a guide.
What to see in Taggia
- Convento di San Domenico. Founded in 1490. The Brea panels hang alongside works of the Nice school, four centuries of west-Ligurian painting gathered in one cloister.
- Ponte Antico. The arches step unevenly across the river, the earliest sections centuries older than the latest, a bridge built by accretion rather than plan.
- Centro storico di Taggia. Three parallel medieval streets above the river, sixteenth-century walls and gates intact from the era of Saracen and Ottoman raids.
How to get to Taggia
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 116 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September to October bring the best windows: olive groves still green or in harvest, the Argentina valley walkable, evenings on the centro storico stones below 25 degrees. Taggia's olive harvest, the Olioliva festival down the coast in Imperia, runs through November. July and August push 30 to 32 degrees and bring weekend traffic from Sanremo, ten kilometers west.
More from Anywhere Italy
- The best olive oil towns you can reach by train in Liguria
The 6 best olive oil towns within 90 minutes of Genova
The best olive oil towns in the province of Imperia
The best olive oil towns within 45 minutes of Genoa
The best towns that eat well within 45 minutes of Genoa- The best coastal towns in the province of Imperia