What to See in Sanremo: Places of Interest in the City of Flowers

Splendid and renowned Ligurian destination, Sanremo is largely associated with the annual edition of the Italian song festival held in this location since the first half of the 20th century. But Sanremo is also a well-known resort town in Liguria, in the province of Imperia, not far from nearby France. Let’s see what to see and do in Sanremo.

What to See and Do in Sanremo

1 Stroll Along the Avenues and the Seafront

The avenues of Sanremo invite you to walk among palm trees and very well-kept gardens. The Marsiglia park features exotic plants, and the Riviera Palace Hotel houses the Tourism Office. The seafront with its palms of “the city of flowers” recalls the renowned locations of the Côte d’Azur, with its gardens and charming villas indicating a lifestyle that is not quite common. If you’re looking for parking in Sanremo, you can park right on the Nations seafront, by the sea, or on Corso Imperatrice.

2 The Sanremo Casino

Sanremo is a town that hosts one of the few casinos located in Italy. The casino was opened in 1905 and was later expanded over the following years. It is open every day and is located at the beginning of Corso Matteotti.

3 The Ariston Theatre

The Ariston Theatre of Sanremo is (perhaps) one of the most famous in Italy thanks to the annual editions (usually in February) of the Italian song festival known precisely as the “Sanremo Festival”. The Ariston Theatre is located along Corso Matteotti and has an old-style (Art Decò) facade dating back to 1924. Since 1977 it has been the permanent venue of the singing event which was previously held at the casino, in certainly smaller spaces compared to the theatre.

4 La Pigna

Sanremo encloses a delightful medieval town among some bastions. This is “La Pigna”. It is absolutely a place to see with streets, squares, and fountains all dating back to the medieval period, and still inhabited houses. Among the most beautiful squares is “Piazza dei Dolori” but the entire area lends itself to a pleasant walk among palaces and cafés that echo the past.

Sanremo’s Villas

5 Villa Nobel

Villa Nobel is a magnificent 19th-century building that rises in an eclectic style east of the town along Corso Cavallotti. Its story began in the late 1870s when the pharmacist from Rivoli, Pietro Vacchieri, had an elegant villa built to the design of Filippo Grossi, appreciated “for the swiftness and elegance of its forms.” The general appearance of the villa, surrounded by a beautiful park of valuable plants extending to the sea, adorned with canopies and “French-style” roofs, was far from unpleasant. It caught Nobel’s attention, who bought it on April 25, 1891, along with the availability of a large land (6,099 sqm), crossed by two level crossings, equipped with gas chandeliers and two wells with pumps, as well as a series of small buildings and temporary structures. Nobel lived there alone for 6 years (1890-1896). Renovation work entrusted to architect Pio Soli in 1892 did not alter the original project but involved adding a floor and modifying the central roofs and turrets. In the attic, windows were opened alternating with frescoed metopes. Upon the Swedish scientist’s death in 1897, the villa passed to Max Adolphe Philipp, Director of the German Dynamite Society, then sold again. In 1969, the villa was sold to the Sanremo Autonomous Board of Tourism, which used it for cultural and tourism events. The latest ownership transfer occurred in 1973 to the Province of Imperia, which permanently entrusted it in the 1980s to the Nobel Foundation, under the supervision of engineer Strandh, Director of the Stockholm Museum of Technology. Since 1993, new restoration and setup works turned it into a museum.

6 Villa Ormond

In 1875, the Swiss entrepreneur Michel Louis Ormond, head of a cigar manufacturing company in Vevey, and a politician passionate about history and the arts, became the owner of Villa Rambaldi, at the center of a vast estate in the eastern part of Sanremo. After marrying French poet Marie Margherite Renet in Paris in 1866, the frail health of his wife led Michel Louis Ormond to seek a residence on the Riviera. When a violent earthquake struck western Liguria on February 25, 1887, the Ormond residence suffered serious damage, so the Swiss family decided to build a new building: after two years of work (1889) the result was the elegant Villa Ormond, designed by the Swiss architect already author of the Geneva Opera House and numerous villas for Swiss high society. The villa hosted illustrious guests such as the Princes of Prussia, the Duke of Aosta, and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. After the deaths of Michel Louis Ormond (1901) and then Marie Margherite (1925), the property was put up for sale and was purchased by the Municipality of Sanremo in 1930 for three million lire. Thanks to then mayor Pietro Agosti, the park was opened to the public and an ample fountain designed by Agosti himself and a pavilion for exhibitions were built. Today, a wing of the villa houses the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, while the villa is often used for international flower exhibitions or tourist events.

7 Roman Villa of Bussana

The remains of the Roman villa of Bussana are located near the mouth of the Armea stream, in the Capo Marine area. In ancient times, the villa was arranged along the probable path of the Julia Augusta road or on a secondary road connected to it. It cannot be excluded that the villa originally extended much further than currently visible and may have included residential areas as well as production spaces, although the residential part has not been preserved. Therefore, it would not be a simple rural villa but a genuine extra-urban residence, equipped to accommodate the owner for longer or shorter stays. Further proof of this interpretation is the rather refined technique used in the wall construction, cement work with facing in rectangular blocks of limestone and sandstone (petit appareil).

Except for a kiln for firing bricks and tiles and a water basin, it is difficult to determine the function of the preserved rooms since most do not have particular fittings that might document specific activities; therefore, generic functions like storage or granaries or other domestic-related activities are likely. Outside the villa’s perimeter walls and probably unrelated to it, there is a tomb with a quadrangular outer shape and semicircular inner shape, designed to create a large apsidal niche where the commemorative statue of the deceased or a deity may have been placed. The wall construction technique is similar to that of the villa, but stone blocks alternate with rows of bricks. Ceramic materials from the kiln excavation, coin finds, and inscriptions allow dating the construction of the villa and tomb between the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D.

8 Roman Villa of Foce

The remains of the Roman villa of Foce are located near the monumental cemetery of Sanremo, close to the sea outlet of the Rio Foce. The site has been known since the 17th century, as local scholars have recorded. According to unfounded hypotheses, which were nevertheless credited until the early 20th century, the villa was identified as Villa Matuciana, a name derived from a toponym recalling the main center of this area in Roman times, presumably identifiable with the urban area of Sanremo. Following the report of Honorary Inspector Eng. P. Agosti in 1925, the first archaeological excavations were carried out by archaeologist P. Barocelli, who uncovered some rooms correctly recognized as part of a thermal complex related to a villa. Other remains, perhaps of the same building, were found further west near Rio San Bernardo, while only the existence of submerged remains of the villa was hypothesized.

Three rooms, those currently preserving the tallest walls, had probably been reused already from the 17th century for the construction of a rural house. Excavations and research on the villa resumed by N. Lamboglia in 1937 and continued in 1962-63 by Lamboglia after the villa area was acquired by the Ministry and the Municipality of Sanremo. The rural house was then demolished and a series of other rooms were uncovered. More recent underwater investigations by the Superintendence have confirmed that the supposed submerged ruins in the sea area in front of the villa are actually natural rock outcrops.

The Foce villa most likely belongs to the category of seaside villas, large extra-urban residences located near the sea. Currently, 12 rooms are visible: the entire bath complex (balneum) of the villa, meant for the exclusive use of the owner; the resting rooms overlooking the open space in front, perhaps laid out as a garden; a service room connected to the operation of the baths; the open courtyard; the latrine. Various heating system elements are preserved in some bath rooms. Based on the heating systems and ceramic finds, and in agreement with the construction technique in cement with facing in sandstone and limestone rectangular blocks (petit appareil), a date to the 1st century AD can be proposed. The ceramic finds also testify to continuous use of the building up to the 5th-6th centuries AD.

Sanremo Cultural Sites

9 Palazzo Borea D’Olmo

Palazzo Borea d’Olmo is one of the most important Baroque buildings in western Liguria. It was built in several stages starting from a late medieval core and acquired its current appearance during the Baroque period, between the 17th and 18th centuries. The building has been continuously inhabited by members of the Borea d’Olmo family, of Venetian origin and ancient lineage, who chose it as their private residence and from which the palace took its name. After the gradual disposal of surrounding garden areas, it currently faces directly south onto Via Matteotti, the main city street.

The facades are characterized by a large Renaissance-style cornice that harmonizes with the Baroque-Maniera decoration. On the south and west fronts, there are two beautiful marble portals (with original wooden doors lined with sheet iron studs) topped by marble statues of the “Virgin with Child” (front) and “St. John the Baptist” (Via Cavour side), works of the Florentine artist Fra Giovanni da Montorsoli (1507-1563), a favored young pupil and assistant of Michelangelo and one of the sculptors within the `Doria workshop?` operating at the Prince’s Palace in Genoa. The monumental atrium, in pure Genoese style, features marble columns and balustrades, a short staircase, and a harmonious interplay of vaults.

Inside, the rooms housing the Museum on the second floor are enriched with frescoes and decorative inserts attributed to painter Maurizio Carrega (1737 – 1818). The ceilings of the salons bear late 17th-century frescoes by Giovanni Battista Merano. Noteworthy inside is a tiny chapel with a marble altar and a statue of the Immaculate Virgin attributed to sculptor Giacomo Antonio Ponsonelli. The palace has shared the vicissitudes of local history for centuries. It hosted a long series of princes, sovereigns, and illustrious men: from Queen Elizabeth of Spain, to King Charles Emmanuel III, painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Pope Pius VII, to Prince Philip of Edinburgh.

10 Sanremo Civic Museum

The Civic Museum, initially established as an Archaeological Museum, is housed on the second floor of Palazzo Borea d’Olmo, in the splendid spaces of the prestigious residence, enriched by works from Bernardo Strozzi, Giovanni Battista Merano, Maurizio Carrega. Since 1988, it has been divided into three distinct sections: archaeological, artistic (picture gallery), and historical (collection of Garibaldi relics).

The archaeological section, the most established, created in 1972 and supported by the permanent educational exhibition “Man and the Origin of Civilization in Liguria,” gathers the oldest findings from the Sanremo area and surroundings, from the Paleolithic and Bronze Age to the Roman period. The Picture Gallery houses a fine collection of paintings and sculptures from legacies and acquisitions. The most representative is the collection of paintings and prints donated by the poet Renzo Laurano, pseudonym of Luigi Asquasciati (1909-1986), featuring landscapes, portraits, and religious subjects from the 17th century to the early 20th century, including works by D. Fiasella, C. Giuseppe Ratti, and G Grosso. Recently, a room dedicated to artists active between the 19th and 20th centuries, from Edward Lear to Antonio Discovolo and Antonio Rubino, has been opened. The exhibition is completed by a series of sculptures from early 20th-century authors (Vincenzo and Nello Pasquali, Franco Bargiggia) and a room dedicated to contemporary art (paintings by Cesi Amoretti, Giannetto Fieschi, etc.). In the Stucco Room, the historical section offers testimonies of the city’s history and an important collection of Garibaldi relics belonging to English noblewoman Caroline Phillipson.

11 Scientific Collection

The scientific collection of ancient physics and geodesy instruments was studied, cataloged digitally, and recovered with the support of the Physics Museum of D.I.F.I. – University of Genoa (during 2006-2007) within a project to safeguard and enhance historic scientific instruments existing in schools and other cultural institutions of Liguria, supported and funded by the Liguria region (Department of Culture). The cataloged instruments number 94, mostly dating from the second half to the end of the 19th century. Through the valorization of this heritage, the I.I.S. “Colombo” of Sanremo aims to organize scientific culture dissemination initiatives aimed mainly at young people and high school students from Western Liguria. The collection also includes mineralogical collections, natural sciences, and some anatomical models.

12 Rambaldi Picture Gallery, Villa Luca

Established in 1866, the Rambaldi Collection, including the picture gallery and the library, originated from the bequest of the library and print collection that priest Paolo Stefano Rambaldi (1803-1865) left to his native municipality of Colla, now Coldirodi, a district of Sanremo. Currently, the picture gallery consists of about one hundred paintings, from the 15th to the 19th century.

Among these stand out the Madonna with Child attributed to Lorenzo di Credi (Verrocchio’s workshop), the Holy Family by Frà Bartolomeo della Porta, as well as valuable paintings by Aurelio Lomi, Salvator Rosa, Michele Rocca, Jacopo Ligozzi and many other examples of the major Italian painting schools. The collection is closely connected to the social and cultural world of 19th-century Florence, where Rambaldi served for almost ten years until 1849 as rector of the Archiepiscopal Seminary. The priest’s taste was not entirely alien to interest in more recent authors, though still linked to classical canons such as Anton Raphael Mengs and Antonio Morghen, and classical-style authors like Hungarian Karoly Marko the Elder.

Annexed to the picture gallery, the Library preserves more than five thousand volumes, including precious incunabula, 16th-century books, and rare manuscripts collected by the priest. The collection’s transfer in 2006 from the modest premises of the former municipal office of Coldirodi to the large restored spaces of Villa Luca, also in Coldirodi, maintained the connection between library and gallery and preserved the collection’s character.

13 Physics Cabinet Museum of Cassini Classical High School

The oldest higher education institute in the province and one of the few centenary high schools in Italy: founded in Nice in 1860, when the Kingdom of Sardinia extended to the Var river, in the same year it was transferred to Sanremo to remain Italian after the city’s cession to France. It is the only high school in the province of Imperia offering access to a wide range of courses, enriched by several ongoing experimental programs.

The scientific imprint of the high school is attested by the Physics Cabinet where precious, finely made instruments for experiments were collected over time; it is recorded that the laboratory was even used by Alfred Nobel during his stay in Sanremo. Currently, with the fruitful collaboration of the University of Genoa’s Physics Department and the support of the Liguria Region, the original collection has become a public museum and an opportunity for in-depth study for students and science enthusiasts.

14 Where to Sleep in Sanremo

Sanremo offers good hotel and extra-hotel accommodation. Being a resort for years, it is accustomed to the “cult of the guest.” In Sanremo you can find hundreds upon hundreds of hospitality options.