Updated regularly, with your suggestions and comments...
Besides the town of Bussana Vecchia there are tons of things to do in this area: Many superb restaurants, the beaches and small towns nearby, larger towns Sanremo and Imperia, accessible via the 'pista ciclabile' path, daytrips to Menton, Monaco, Nice and Cannes area, the olive oil factories producing world-famous Taggiasca oil, easy but also strenous day hikes in the surrounding Alps (up to 2100m/ 7000 ft). You may find more details and maps in the niche in the living room and there should be a bowl somewhere in the house with address-phone numbers for many of the restaurants. Here are some suggestion based on our totally biased experiences. Where available I've provided links to other sites for reviews.
If you have any suggestions, comments or new ideas: send a mail to Casajoan.
Update:Given the multitude of options, I have started a web page with Itinerary suggestions for shorter or longer stays.
Food
The list of restaurants keeps on expanding so I've created a separate Food page. You can return to this main page by clicking on the "Things to do" menu item.
Pista Ciclabile: and more bicycle trips on the Bike page
Hiking Liguria: Easy and less easy walks are on the Hiking page
Tennis: Tennis club Arma has a handful of clay courts near the port of Arma di Taggia. You can rent the courts by the hour, in advance. Rate per hour in 2020 was 20 euro. After a game of tennis you can take a dive in the sea and have lunch at one of many nearby restaurants.
Scubadiving: There are centers in Arma (end of the small harbor), Marina di Aragai (large yacht area 5 km east of Arma) and in Sanremo. There are several shallow areas near the shore that have nice quality vegetation and fish, a statue of a saint, and a few well-preserved ships from WWII. They also provide 5-day PADI or equivalent training courses.
If you prefer to stay with snorkeling, you will find many interesting locations near Bussana beach. There's an artificial reef that was created as wave breaker, and around the rocky corner in de the direction of Sanremo you'll find many interesting underwater rocks and sea life.
Canyoning: Liguaria has multiple great locations for going up or down the canyons. Some are organized, others can be accessed directly. In all cases, it is essential to be familiar with this sport. Every year some climbers get hurt, or worse, because they underestimate the forces of the rivers and the height of the falls. Never attempt to jump anything over 8 meters if you don't know how to brace your body for the blow. A nearby small lake is the lago Drera, near Molini. More professional canyoning can be done e.g. at Rocchetta Nervina.
Shiatsu massage: This may be the extra relaxation that tops off your stay in of Bussana. Bussana Vecchia resident Andrea opened a shiatsu massage center near the former railway station in Arma di Taggia several years ago. He offers an excellent professional massage at a modest price. A shiatsu massage will typically be one hour.
Boat Rental
I haven't tried this but there are several places along the coast where you can rent a boat or yacht. WIth or without driver.
There's a boat storage and repair center just across the harbor of Arma di Taggia. The offer various types of boats. Check the Cantiere Nautico website. Motorboat prices start at around 170/day. Yachts are multiples of this amount. The have standard office hours. In July/August they are also open on Sundays.
Beaches: This area has the best beaches of the Italian and French Rivièra. Yes, this is bold statement.
Have you ever closely looked at the beaches along the French Rivièra? Besides the rocky and artificial sandy hotel beaches this part of the coast is all pebbles.
Getting a sun tan in Menton, Nice or Cannes means you need to take (beach) shoes and a proper mattress with you. And getting in the water is not always easy for kids or older people.
This type of beach
is great is you dislike sand, of course.
The Italian Rivièra? Same story, for most of the coastline, including Sanremo (see above image of Ventimiglia pebble beach). On the other side of Genova there are pebbles too, and grey/black beach in the area of Sestri Levante.
For sandy beaches in France you need to go to the Atlantic coast (but there is the tide and the waves) and for the same in Italy you need to go to the Adriatic coast. Here speaks a lover of sandy beaches and swimming who has purposely driven all along the coastline of Italy, including Sicily, in pursuit of the best beaches.
The beach near Bussana is near-perfect:
The coastal area from Bussana beach to San Lorenzo is protected by small rocky breaker dams that sometimes are above and sometimes under water, forming an articial reef with a sandy bottom. This has created a series of sandy beaches and shallow areas behind the 'dikes' that are great for kids, while they do not prevent the avid swimmer to swim to and from the buoys that are placed about 150m
further out to mark the 'no anchoring' zone.
The result is that you can enjoy the sun while the kids can safely enjoy the water, and your view isn't spoiled by dozens of yachts.
Bussana beach is very safe because there's an underwater dam right in front, marked by yellow buoys. So is the part from the fortress up to the harbor of Arma. The underwater dam along Bussana beach has been planned a little too short, so unfortunately for Claudio, at Bagni Fiore, his beach part is less protected. After a (rare) summer storm the surf area of these beaches will be covered with pebbles, but the small kiddie pool at La Fortezza beach towards Arma is only a few steps away (see below images). The 360-image was shot late October 2018 at our favorite beach Magama (unfortunately now replaced by less interesting beach place). The sea was still warm enough for a 20 minute swim.
See the Bussana / Arma di Taggia beach overview map with our preferred places (sand beach, ice cream, etc.)..
Below is an image (taken during the Due Colli hike) of some of these rocky dams. The image is taken on a windy day in early May, which happens to be a perfect time for kite surfers. Every year in early May, any wood and rocks deposited by the winter storms is removed by bulldozers and any holes in the sandy beaches are patched with new sand to be in perfect shape for the italian tourists arriving from the Milano and Torino area in July and August.
If you want to know more about the beaches, take a look at this Verdeazurro page (in italian). It has pdf downloads of every beach along the Ligurian cost.
Towns
- Taggia
The town of Taggia was built in medieval days and large parts of this old town haven't changed a bit. Here you will still find some elder ladies selecting flowers or ferns on the sidewalks and prepare them for shipment (often via the mega-auction in Aalsmeer, Netherlands) all over the globe. The minuscule young ferns arrive in large trucks from Holland and grow in the many greenhouses (Serre) in this area until they are mature. After careful selection in towns like Taggia they are shipped back to Holland to be combined with roses from Holland, but also from Africa or Israel, for air transport to the USA.
The main square in the
center of town is from the late 19th century, with couple of decent bars to take an aperitivo (Spritz) in the afternoon. The church is a good example of late Baroque painting with lots of fake marble and pillars.
A must-see in Taggia is its original Roman bridge (6th or 7th century).When you stand on this long bridge over the Argentina river you can envision how this bridge must have carried pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages for well over one thousand years between the main towns of Genova and Nice. Several years ago, the river Argentina carrioed so much water from the mountains that it absorbed several key modern bridges between Taggia and its port Arma di Taggia. The only bridge that stayed completely unaffected ... was this old Roman bridge.
Every year at end February there's a major event in Taggia (San Benedetto) when they commemorate the war between the Duke of Savoy and the Republic of Genova which was fought here in 1625. The town is decorated with fresh Mimosa and hundreds of local volunteers reenact the battle in traditional costumes with several charges over a period of two days and loud musket and canon fire. Not to be missed.
The main railway line along the coast was moved about 2 km inland, so the railway station now lies on the South side of Taggia.
- Arma di Taggia
Arma di Taggia used to be the port of Taggia. It now is a friendly tourist town with a superb beach area. It is one of the very few towns along the Italian Rivièra that does not have the main Via Aurelia road or a railway track along the beach. It has a pedestrian area and a 'lover's lane' along the beach line with cafe's and restaurants. The town is one of the key holiday locations for italians from the Torino and Milano areas. The majority of all apartments and hotels are booked one year in advance which leaves very little space for other foreign tourists. Many apartments are owned by italians from the North. In winter they are used by the grandparents to enjoy the sunny micro-climate of the area; the whole family gathers there for the public holidays, and parents and children use the apartment for long weekends with friends. In summer, the fathers stay at their home town to work while the mothers and children spend more than two months' summer vacation in the apartment. On Friday afternoons and Sunday evenings during summer the Autostrada is often packed with traffic from and to the North.
Altogether, these italian tourists create a very 'local' atmosphere
in Arma so, unlike along the French Rivièra, a significantly smaller risk to meet countrymen or other foreigners.
WIth one exception (the former Victoria hotel) the beach area of Arma is not lined with the standard 20+ floor concrete apartments that
spoil the beaches virtually everywhere else in the world, from Benidorm to Miami, and from Australia's Gold Coast to Viña del Mar in Chili. Luckily, the township of Arma realized the uniqueness of their beach already in the 1980's and have blocked construction of large apartment buildings along the coast (you will find these type of buildings more inland).
Every Monday morning from 9 am to 1 pm there's an open market in the center of town which, outside the peak season, is aimed at local buyers rather than tourists.
A must-see event every year are the massive fireworks display
in Arma on the last Sunday of July. The fireworks are done in celebration of Saint Erasmo. A public mass is held on the beach in the morning. The statue of the saint is taken from his church near the beach and is brought in procession to the beach where it boards a local fishing boat to bless the sea and sailors. The fireworks start after sunset around 10:30 pm. At first, the sea is covered with thousands of small paper candle boats. A magnificent display of fireworks-art follows, with new fireworks creations every year. Having enjoyed the world-famous Macy's fireworks in NYC multiple times I dare to state that the one in Arma is superior (and so do my New York friends)
Towns and trips to be added:
-
Sanremo
- Taggiasca olive oil trip
- Imperia (world's first pasta factory built by Agnesi)
- Alassio (picturesque but touristy)
- Genova (Old harbour area and Oceanographic Museum)
- Hanbury Gardens (beautiful cactus and agave gardens created by wealthy english family in late 1800's)
- Menton - Monaco
- Nice - Cannes / Esterel
- Gorbio
- Ceriana - Baiardo - Dolceacqua - Ventimiglia
- Badalucco -
Triora (the witch town, the article in link includes my stairway in Bussana Vecchia)- Andagna - Rezzo - Colle Langan - Baiardo
- Pieve di Teco - Ormea - Garessio - Ceva - Santuario de Vicoforte
- Cuneo - Saluzzo - Pinerolo - Torino - France
- Mercantour (France)