Diano Marina

The seafront promenade runs the whole length of the beach, lined with palms, gardens and beach clubs. It is the heart of summer life in Diano Marina: mornings are for the beach, and in the evening people stroll until late between ice-cream parlours and restaurants.

The Molo delle Tartarughe is the meeting point on the seafront, with a small amphitheatre where shows are held in summer and during festivals.

The parish church of Sant’Antonio Abate, on corso Garibaldi a stone’s throw from the sea, is the most important religious building in Diano Marina. It dates back to the 14th century, but its current appearance comes from the rebuilding of 1862–1865 designed by the architect Luigi Crescia: a large neoclassical interior with a nave and two aisles, divided by 20 columns with Corinthian capitals.

The 1887 earthquake damaged the church, but it reopened as early as October of the same year. Inside you can see frescoes by Raffaele Resio in the nave and apse, and a marble pulpit with figures of Saint Clare, Saint Anthony the Abbot and Saint Erasmus. Next door is the Oratorio della Santissima Annunziata, of medieval origin, home of the confraternity of the same name.

Palazzo del Parco, at corso Garibaldi 60, is a three-storey villa built in the second half of the 19th century for a wealthy local family. Today it is the town’s cultural centre, housing the Angiolo Silvio Novaro public library, a room for exhibitions and talks, and the town museum. Around it is a small botanical park with flower beds, exotic plants and benches overlooking the promenade and the sea.

The Museo Civico MARM occupies the second floor, with ten rooms arranged chronologically from the Bronze Age to late antiquity. The highlight is the Diano Marina wreck, a Roman ship that sank in the gulf around the middle of the 1st century AD with its cargo of amphorae. There is also a section on the Risorgimento and Andrea Rossi, one of Garibaldi’s Thousand, and a mineral collection. The museum is closed on Sundays and Mondays and has evening openings in summer. Check the current opening times on the town’s tourism website.

A few metres from piazza Martiri della Libertà, Villa Scarsella is one of the few buildings in Diano Marina that survived the 1887 earthquake. It began life in the 16th century as a Dominican convent, on the road that climbs to Diano Castello. After the religious orders were suppressed at the end of the 18th century it was sold; during the Fascist era it was a summer camp for children, and later the Roggeri family turned it into a stately villa.

Since the 1970s it has been a primary school, so the interior cannot be visited. Its large garden, however, is one of the liveliest places in Diano Marina in summer, with concerts, shows and open-air events.

Walking along corso Garibaldi, corso Roma and piazza Martiri della Libertà, you pass the historic buildings of the rebuilt town: the 19th-century Palazzo Maglione, the Palazzo Comunale (town hall), Palazzo Ardoino and the old Ardoino hospital. Villa Paradiso was built for the Durante family from Genoa, while Palazzo Muzio now hosts sports activities. Together they tell the story of the town reborn after 1887.

To the west, high above the sea at Capo Berta, Forte Sant’Elmo grew out of a watchtower built between the late 16th and early 17th centuries, also known as the tower of Sant’Erasmo, patron saint of sailors. In 1836 King Carlo Alberto turned it into a fort with new artillery. It is surrounded by a large garden with maritime pines, palms, eucalyptus and agaves.

The fort has been converted into a private residence, so ask at the tourist office whether and when it can be visited. Capo Berta is still one of the best viewpoints over the gulf, and cycling fans know it as one of the capes tackled by the Milano–Sanremo.

At the highest point of Capo Berta, at about 267 metres above sea level in the Diano Gorleri area, stands the Torre dell’Alpicella, a round watchtower dating from the 14th or 15th century. It has thick walls of local stone, a truncated-cone roof and an entrance raised above the ground. You reach it from via Diano Calderina by following the signposted turn-off, and from the top the view takes in the whole Golfo Dianese.

On 20 June 2026 the 900-metre stretch between Imperia and Diano Marina, running above the rocks and left unfinished for a long time, was opened. With it, the Riviera dei Fiori cycle and footpath can be ridden without a break for almost 48 kilometres, from Ospedaletti to Andora. From Diano Marina you can now cycle on the flat towards Imperia, San Lorenzo al Mare and Sanremo, or east towards Andora.