Passeggiata Litoranea & Palm Promenade
Bordighera has been famous for its date palms since the 16th century — the town held the exclusive papal contract to supply palms for the Vatican's Palm Sunday ceremony for over 300 years — and the seafront Lungomare Argentina is where that heritage is most gloriously on display: a 3-kilometre palm-lined promenade between the beach and the sea that Claude Monet painted obsessively during his winte
The Promenade Itself
The Lungomare Argentina runs from the western end of town near Capo Sant'Ampelio all the way east to the border with Ospedaletti, and it is flat, wide and almost entirely car-free. The double row of Phoenix dactylifera (date palms) planted along the seafront creates a dappled light at midday that is unlike anywhere else on the Riviera.
At the eastern end, the promenade connects to the Passeggiata a Mare, a lower coastal path that hugs the rocks just above the waterline — narrower, wilder and with some of the best swimming access on the coast.
Monet's Bordighera
Between January and April 1884, Claude Monet stayed at the Villa Garnier (now a private residence, but visible from Via Romana) and produced 37 paintings of Bordighera — its palms, its old town and its peculiar luminous light. The Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris holds several of the finest; the Bordighera tourist office has a walking map that traces his painting locations.
Standing at the point on the Lungomare where Monet set up his easel to paint the Borgo rising above the palms is a genuinely moving experience for anyone who knows the paintings.
Swimming and Beaches
The beaches along the Lungomare are a mix of free public beach (spiaggia libera) and paid lidos with sunbeds and umbrellas. The free beach west of the old harbour is the most popular with locals; Lido delle Palme is the best-equipped paid option, with showers, a bar and watersports rental.
The sea here is clean and relatively calm — the bay is partially sheltered by the headland — and the water temperature reaches a very swimmable 24–25°C from late June through September.
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