Visit Bordighera

Bordighera is the southernmost town in Liguria. According to legend, the Egyptian hermit Ampelio brought the seeds of the date palm to the coast and took refuge in a cave, which can now be visited. Going up the promontory, Capo Ampelio, you reach the fortification of 1500, the Fortification of Marabutto, which can also be visited. After crossing it, you reach the old city, where, in addition to a suggestive walk through the ancient alleys, a stop at the parish church of Santa Maria Maddalena, from the seventeenth century, is not to be missed, where the relics of Sant Ampelio are kept. The next stop is the Argentine seafront, a favorite destination of the British since the second half of the 1800s, thanks also to the novel “Il Dottor Antonio” by Giovanni Ruffini, set in Bordighera. This type of tourism has given the city numerous works of art and architecture; among these, the first Museum of Western Liguria, founded by Clarence Bicknell, in 1878 the first tennis club in Italy, the Villa of Queen Margaret, home to important art exhibitions, and that of Charles Garnier. Bordighera has been a source of inspiration for many artists, including Claude Monet, testimony of this, the Pompeo Mariani foundation and their Specola, the atelier museum that still preserves a large amount of ancient tools to paint or immortalize the incredible landscapes of the place.