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.