Experience the best of Sanremo

Sanremo lies on the Riviera dei Fiori, the flower coast of western Liguria, with a palm-lined promenade and a Belle Époque casino of 1905. The Teatro Ariston hosts the Sanremo Music Festival every February. Above the harbour, La Pigna, the medieval hill quarter, is a tangle of steep stepped lanes and arches, topped by the sanctuary of the Madonna della Costa, and the Russian Orthodox church, with its onion domes, dates from 1913.

Villa Nobel is where Alfred Nobel spent his last years and died in 1896, and the gardens of Villa Ormond are open to the public. Cyclists know Sanremo as the finish of the Milan–Sanremo classic in March, and a cycle path follows the old railway line along the coast. Bussana Vecchia is a village ruined by an earthquake in 1887 and later settled by artists. The French border lies to the west.

Ligurian cooking brings pesto, focaccia, farinata and sardenaira, Sanremo's own thick pizza with tomato, anchovies and olives. Taggiasca olives give the local oil its mild taste, and the Rossese di Dolceacqua red and Pigato white wines come from the hills behind. Winters are mild enough for flowers, and mimosa blooms in February.