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If you are familiar with the landscapes of north-western Italy, you will know that many towns along the Riviera coast are “twinned“ with an older village in the mountains.

The reason for this is that coastal settlements were deemed unsafe during the long period between antiquity and the restoration of order under effective governments sometime in the 18th century.

We have visited several of these unequal “twins” in the past, always finding the same pattern. The coastal settlements prospered at the expense of the mountain villages, because as soon as the coast became safe (as soon as piracy, banditry and the like were brought under control), people migrated from the back country to the shores of the Mediterranean.

Today, we shall visit another pair of “twinned“ villages, but with a surprising twist in the tale.

"tackle the uphill walk from Ospedaletti to Coldirodi"

That Uphill Walk from Ospedaletti to Coldirodi

The starting point of our uphill walk from Ospedaletti to Coldirodi is the coastal resort of Ospedaletti, halfway between Bordighera and Sanremo on the western side of the Italian Riviera (aka the “Ponente“).

Ospedaletti is far older than most seaside towns in the area, having been established by shipwrecked crusaders in the 14th century who, in gratitude for their survival, built a hospital in the place where they were washed ashore. (Don’t look for the hospital: it has long since disappeared.)

"charming town of Coldirodi - uphill walk from Ospedaletti to Coldirodi"

From Ospedaletti, we walk uphill to Coldirodi, a few kilometres further inland. There are several ways of getting there, but the most direct route is the Strada Vallegrande, a little used country road.

This walk, to be honest, has its upsides and downsides. However, since one should always look on the bright side of life, we shall be concentrating on the former.

Four good reasons to tackle that uphill walk from Ospedaletti to Coldirodi.

1. You will be left in no doubt what (next to tourism) is the region’s main way of earning a living.

If you have travelled to the Riviera to see greenhouses, you have come to the right place. You will be reminded at nearly every step of the way that flower growing in one form or another has a long tradition here.

Ospedaletti, in fact, is where it all began. This was where, in 1874, an Italian businessman named Luigi Bessi and his Parisian partner opened a company to export local plants.

That quickly became a thriving business (earning this stretch of the Ponente its byname of the Riviera di Fiori), although nowadays, it is often cheaper to bring in fresh flowers by plane from Kenya.

Still,  many greenhouses have survived, although at closer inspection …

2. That uphill walk is a great exercise! It may be a bit on the short side but surely packs a punch.

To extend the boxing metaphor: just a few rounds can seem a long time when you are up against Mike Tyson.

And up is the word, since this is where the trail is heading pretty much all the way – gently at first, …

… but much more steeply after a while.

Bear in mind that Ospedaletti lies at sea level whereas Coldirodi reaches an altitude of 250 m . Okay: you are unlikely to require an oxygen mask for the ascent, but you still need to climb all of that over a distance of perhaps 3 or 4 km. Hey: I broke my first sweat of the walking season!

Which brings us to the next point …

3. Enjoy the sunshine.
"views from the Uphill Walk from Ospedaletti to Coldirodi"

This is worth a thought: Ospedaletti is known locally as the town with the best weather in the region. The Province of Imperia, meanwhile (of which Ospedaletti is a part), recently topped the national weather survey of Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy’s leading business paper (the country’s equivalent of the Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal).

This survey compared all the country’s 107 provinces on the basis of parameters such as sunshine hours, rainfall, number of cold days etc., and Imperia won, holding off a batch of mainly southern rivals. Imperia’s neighbours in Savona came in 6th.

And who is suffering from the worst weather in Italy? That would be Pavia, south of Milan.

All of this means that you are, as you walk along, enjoying the best weather in the whole of Italy. Think about that!

4. Coldirodi itself is rather sweet.

It is not the most spectacularly beautiful place, admittedly, but the village square, flanked by the 17th century parish church of Saint Sebastian and the 16th century Oratorio di Santa Anna, is rather charming …

"Uphill Walk from Ospedaletti to Coldirodi"

… not least because, in contrast to many other villages further inland, you actually see people going about their daily business, doing their shopping in the small village shop or stopping to have a chat with one another.

Trips to the Italian Riviera’s back country are often travels back in time: if you want to visit the 1800s, go to Baiardo or Perinaldo, but if you prefer the 1950s, Coldirodi is the place.

"in the town - Uphill Walk from Ospedaletti to Coldirodi"

And here comes the twist in our story of the Riviera’s twin villages. With Ospedaletti and Coldirodi, the usual roles of winners and losers – the prosperous town mouse on the coast and the poor country mouse respectively – are, up to a point, reversed.

Ospedaletti appears to have lost its mojo when the train station was closed several years ago following the rerouting of the main railway line. The brochure from the local Tourism Office claims that the town “faces the 21st century with optimism” and quotes, as an example for Ospedaletti’s dynamism, a marina-cum-tourist-village complex that was “currently under development”.

As you are reading this, it still is, although the brochure is from 2011. I have always felt that Ospedaletti was a little lifeless, certainly in comparison with other resorts along the coast, a village that feels more like the absence of a village, a negative space defined by wind, horizon and the angry screeching of the seagulls.

"Uphill Walk from Ospedaletti to Coldirodi starting here"

Coldirodi, conversely, is listed as counting 3000 inhabitants – in a part of the country, mind you, where hillside villages often struggle to reach the low hundreds.

This does not mean that Coldirodi has survived as a mountain village in the traditional sense: its inhabitants do not live from citrus fruit or olive farming.

Adaptation, meanwhile, has always been the recipe for successful towns of any size or region. London or Paris, Venice or Florence:  they all grew big on one thing – and then survived on something else.

Coldirodi, as you will see when you stroll a little beyond the village limits, has become the home for many moderately prosperous people who work in busy Sanremo, which you can see nestling in its bay 10 km to the south.

"views from the Uphill Walk from Ospedaletti to Coldirodi"
Finally, some technicalities.

Ospedaletti lies on the area’s main bus line from Ventimiglia to Sanremo. Buses circulate frequently between Ventimiglia’s Via Cavour and the Piazza Colombo in the heart of Sanremo.

Buses to Sanremo leave Coldirodi about once per hour. The bus stop is located approx. 100 metres behind the Oratorio Santa Anna.

And if you start your day early enough, you can be in Sanremo just in time for lunch.

Up for a challenge? Then, this uphill walk from Ospedaletti to Coldirodi awaits you!

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