La Pigna — Sanremo's Medieval Old Town
Perched on a steep hill directly behind the modern city, La Pigna (the pine cone) is a tightly coiled spiral of medieval alleys, vaulted passageways and sun-bleached ochre houses that most beach tourists never bother to climb. That is precisely why you should.
Getting Lost Is the Point
The neighbourhood follows a deliberate defensive spiral — streets wind inward and upward so that invaders would lose their bearings, and modern visitors happily do the same. Every corner reveals a Madonna shrine, a cat asleep on warm stone or a sudden gap in the buildings framing a flash of blue sea.
Start at Piazza Santa Brigida at the base and follow the stepped Via del Castillo upward. The higher you climb, the quieter and more atmospheric it becomes, with laundry strung between medieval windows and the smell of basil drifting from open kitchens.
The Summit and the Sanctuary
At the very top stands the Santuario della Madonna della Costa, a 17th-century church with a single-nave interior decorated in vivid baroque frescoes and a much-venerated gilded statue of the Virgin. The terrace in front offers the finest free panorama in all of Sanremo — sea, rooftops and the Ligurian hills in one sweep.
A handful of small trattorias and wine bars have opened in the lower lanes in recent years, making La Pigna a legitimate dinner destination as well as a daytime wander. Book ahead; they are tiny.
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