Arenzano

This is Arenzano’s green heart, right by the station. The estate was bought in 1558 by Marquis Tobia Pallavicino. In 1880 Marchioness Luisa Sauli Pallavicino had the villa remodelled into a small turreted castle and commissioned the architect Rovelli to design the park, with rare trees, ponds, a stream, a waterfall and grottoes. Today the villa is the town hall.

The park is public and free to enter. Look out for a huge cedar of Lebanon, swamp cypresses and other trees that are unusual in Liguria, two ponds with turtles, ducks and geese, a citrus grove and a play area for small children. Peacocks wander freely along the paths and are used to people. Opening hours are longer in summer; if you plan to visit in the evening, check the Comune di Arenzano website.

The old fishing village climbs from the sea towards the hill in narrow lanes, colourful houses and small squares. Via Bocca, the pedestrian shopping street, was laid out in the 1960s where the old railway used to run. Stop in Piazza Colombo with its well, and in Piazza Chiossone, known locally as “Nastrè”, the site of the old public wash-houses. Nearby, Palazzo Sant’Antonio, a former oratory, houses the town library.

On the hill above the centre, this sanctuary is Italy’s main centre of devotion to the Infant Jesus of Prague. It grew out of the convent of the Discalced Carmelites, built at the end of the 19th century: a small image of the Infant of Prague arrived in 1900, the devotion spread quickly and the church was built in the early 1900s. You can walk up from the centre or drive.

Don’t miss the ceramic nativity scene, made in 1969–1970 by the ceramicist Eliseo Salino from Albisola, with more than 300 figures and on view all year round. Next to the sanctuary there is a garden and plant nursery. The main festival is in early September, when the statue is carried out to sea on fishing boats.

The parish church, dedicated to Arenzano’s patron saints, is a Baroque building rebuilt in the 18th century. On 14 August 1944 it was badly damaged by bombing: the vault you see today was frescoed in the mid-20th century by the Genoese painter Ernesto Massiglio, based on 19th-century cartoons by Francesco Semino.

The patron saints’ day is 28 July, with vespers, a procession through the centre with the confraternity’s crucifixes and processional shrine, then stalls and fireworks over the sea at 11 pm.

Palm trees, lamp posts and beach clubs: the promenade is where Arenzano goes for its evening stroll. The nicest stretch is Lungomare Olanda, with the free beach by the sailing club and, behind it, the park of Villa Figoli des Geneys, a Gothic Revival villa from 1872 that you can see clearly from the promenade. Further west, Lungomare Stati Uniti leads to the marina.

Arenzano is one of the ten municipalities of the Beigua Geopark, the largest nature park in Liguria and a UNESCO Global Geopark since 2015. Its mountains, over 1,000 metres high, are just a few kilometres from the sea: on clear days the ridges look out over the whole Gulf of Genoa. Trails, visitor centres and maps are on the Beigua Park website.