Excursions

Excursions and places to visit

The Historic Centre

The historic centre of Ventimiglia is perched on a rock overlooking the mouth of the Roia river and the new town built on the edge of the sea.
In the medieval village, do not miss the city walls, the palaces, the towers, the Cathedral of the Assunta with its baptistery and the Fortress of the Annunziata, overlooking the sea, which today is an important multipurpose cultural centre!




Hanbury Botanical Gardens

The naturalistic passion of Sir Thomas Hanbury and his family has created, since 1867 near Ventimiglia, a botanical garden for the acclimatization of plants from the most diverse areas of the world, taking advantage of the fortunate position of the area and the particular mildness of the climate: the Hanbury Botanical Gardens.
Thanks to the collaboration of botanists, agronomists and landscape architects, a grandiose ensemble was created that has no equal in Europe both from the botanical point of view, with the 5800 species of ornamental, medicinal and fruit plants, and from the landscape one, thanks to the happy compositional harmony between buildings, ornamental elements and cultivated terraces.
The botanical garden is located on Capo Mortola, which is characterized by one of the most interesting marine environments in Eastern Liguria.

Balzi Rossi

The Balzi Rossi site is formed by suggestive rocks overlooking the sea, easily reach-able from the coastal roads.
Inside there are caves and caverns that hosted primitive man, constituting one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world. Man lived in these spectacular caves 200,000 years ago.
Its traces are preserved in the Prehistoric Museum
The name of the site derives from the colour of the limestone walls which, due to the presence of oxidized iron minerals, appear reddish.
The complex consists of numerous caves and shelters and today represents one of the largest sites in Europe with prehistoric evidence.

Fortress of the Annunziata

A true masterpiece of military engineering.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the fortress lost its strategic importance and after being ceded to the municipality of Ventimiglia, in 1984 it was decided to create the Rossi Museum, the largest archaeological museum in Liguria.
There are finds from the excavations of Album Itimilium (the ancient name of Ventimiglia), glass objects, engraved tombstones dating back to the 1st - 7th century AD. and marble heads of the Imperial age.

Aprosiana Library

The Aprosiana Library, founded in 1648, is located in a historical building in the medieval centre of Ventimiglia and its antique section preserves one of the most important Italian collections of 17th century works.
About 7,000 volumes, often of considerable rarity, remain from the historical collection, housed in two rooms decorated with the surviving examples of the Aprosiana art gallery.
Openings: from 1st October to 10th June: Monday and Saturday 9.30 a.m. - 1.30 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 3.30 p.m. - 7.30 p.m. From 11th June to 30th September: every day from 9.30 a.m. to 13.30 p.m.

Whale Watch

Cetacean sighting departing from Porto Maurizio (Imperia), on the ship "Il Corsaro" A unique and exciting experience suitable for both adults and children. The Ligurian Sea is in fact the gateway to one of the most important marine areas for the study of cetacean fauna: the International Cetacean Sanctuary, an area of about 100,000 km². Not only cetaceans, but also fish, reptiles and birds, with the guidance of a trained and experienced team.

Dolceacqua

A typical medieval village on the hills of the Ligurian hinterland between Ventimiglia and Bordighera. For a couple of years Dolceacqua has been awarded the Orange Flag, a prestigious tourism and environmental quality mark assigned by the Italian Touring Club.
The Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) is the symbol of this charming village nestled in the hills of the Val Nervia.
The painter Claude Monet, who visited the village and called it a 'jewel of light-ness', painted it in two paintings, depicting the bridge itself and the castle. To this day, the village is still identical to how the painter had painted it in the late 1800s.

Roman Ventimiglia

Albintimilium: the Roman city on which Ventimiglia stands, one of the flagships of classical civilization.
Once in town, you do not have to walk far to come across ancient Rome.
The ancient remains are preserved within the archaeological area in Nervia.
One can find the protohistoric settlement of the Ligurians with some hut bases and the area around the Roman walls with the Porta di Provenza.
Other monuments of great interest are the thermal baths and above all the theatre.

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