San Remo Italy Riviera
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on size. Smaller ships tie up in the port, a few hundred metres from the centre; larger ones anchor offshore and tender passengers almost to the doorstep of the seafront cafés. Either way, you are walking under the palms of Corso Imperatrice within minutes.
Yes. Corso Imperatrice, the casino, Via Matteotti and the market are all within walking distance of the landing. La Pigna, the old quarter, is climbed by stairways: it is the only demanding part of the call.
La Pigna and the Regina Elena gardens in the morning, then the casino, Corso degli Inglesi and the Russian Orthodox church, with a stop at the covered market. The Villa Ormond gardens round out the day if time allows.
The medieval core, which coils in on itself like the pine cone it is named after. You climb it through a maze of vaulted lanes, stairways and arcaded passages, built in a spiral from around the year 1000 to withstand Barbary raids. At the top, the Regina Elena gardens open onto the rooftops, the port and the Mediterranean.
Yes. This Art Nouveau palace, opened in 1905, still hosts gamblers, concerts and literary evenings, and its immaculate façade presides over Corso degli Inglesi. It embodies the era when European aristocracy wintered on this coast.
Because Empress Maria Alexandrovna and her entourage were among the Belle Époque winter residents. The Orthodox church, topped with coloured onion domes inspired by Moscow, keeps that memory a few steps from the casino.
The Italian Song Festival, held every winter since 1951 at the Teatro Ariston on Via Matteotti, which quite literally stops the whole country in front of its televisions. Songs born here, such as Nel blu dipinto di blu — the famous 'Volare' — travelled the world after first ringing out on that stage.
Yes, on the Ligurian Riviera cycle path, laid out on the former coastal railway: 24 kilometres right at the water's edge, through beaches, tunnels and villages. Cyclists worldwide also know the town as the finish line of the Milan-San Remo classic, run every spring since 1907.
Sardenaira, the local tomato and anchovy flatbread that scents the bakeries of La Pigna. At the covered market, focaccia, taggiasca olives and edible flowers make a delicious portrait of western Liguria.
Because it has grown carnations and roses on its terraced hillsides since the 19th century, which earned it the title of capital of the Italian Riviera of Flowers. That perfumed softness still marks its palm-lined avenues and its markets.
