MEDIEVAL VILLIAGE OF CERIANA
Italian Riviera and 30-min by car to the French boarder

Nestling in the hills of the Italian Riviera is the ancient town of CERIANA, its people and architecture shaped by history and tradition. Like many of the oldest towns of this region, it was built in the hills in order to protect the inhabitants from pirates and Saracens who ravaged the Mediterranean Coast during the Middle Ages. Over the centuries, the town grew to become a cluster of stone buildings huddled around the ancient Chiesa di Sant’Andrea, a church said to be built on the site of a Roman temple. It is believed that the original nucleus, the “Castrum Coelianae”, was founded by a Roman Family, the Celii. The most important monument of CERIANA is the Chiesa di Santo Spirito, a large Romanesque church built in the 12th Century located in the foothills of Ceriana along the river.

CERIANA has fruit & vegetable shops, restaurant, coffee shops, bars, an ice cream parlour, post office, bank, markets, local bakery, and the bus stop that will take you down to San Remo and to other surrounding villages. The village is a labyrinth of hundreds of narrow cobblestone paths and stairs that often emerge unexpectedly in another part of town, rewarding the adventurer with spectacular vistas over the valley. A small river along the base of the town features rows of abandoned olive mills, the canals channelling river water to their millstones still visible.