Cipressa

Cipressa sits on a ridge above the Ligurian Sea, ten kilometers west of Imperia. The ridge runs inland from the coast road, and the village occupies its high point, with the frazione of Lingueglietta set further west on the same line of hills, its medieval street plan still intact and separate in character from the centro storico below. Above the village, a tower built against Saracen raids stands as one signal point in a chain that once ran the length of the coast from Ventimiglia to Genova, the raids themselves having shaped settlement patterns here through the late Middle Ages: villages set back and up from the shore, watch points on the high ground.

In Lingueglietta the same pressure produced a church converted into a fortified shelter, merlons added to its roofline when the danger from the sea increased. Below the ridge, the valley is olive country, Taggiasca terraces dropping from the high ground to the coast road. The result is a village whose defensive geography, built to keep distance from the water, now sits directly above a road cut for the opposite purpose: getting from the water to the ridge as fast as possible.