From Andora to the Passo di Ginestro

Around the path...

Andora is dominated by the castle, that is the medieval village high up on a hill to the left of the valley, just a short distance from the coastal plain. The beautiful early Romanesque church of Saints Giacomo and Filippo is located next to the castle. The nearest traces of the Roman road that used to pass through these areas towards Provence are the medieval bridge over the river Merula and the road that climbs up from it towards the east to the village of Colla Micheri overlooking the beautiful seaside town of Laigueglia. The Fischia it vento path is worthy of attention (Ibis): this is one of the paths of the Cultural Park of the Riviera delle Palme dedicated to the memory of Felice Cascione, one of the first partisans of the Riviera di Ponente and author of the famous song "Fischia il vento". The path starts at the "Passo du Beu" farm building below the Passo di San Giacomo, cuts across the Merula valley uphill from Stellanello, climbs up to Testico (470 m) along a panoramic ridge through woods and chestnut forests and descends into the Lerrone valley towards the olive groves of Casanova Lerrone (250 m). From here, after passing a second ridge near the little church of San Bernardo (563 m), the route descends the Arroscia valley towards Onzo (400 m), a district of olive groves and Pigato wine, towards Vendone. Here the white stone sculptures of Reiner Kriester, like prehistoric megaliths or like the monoliths in "2001: A Space Odyssey", are worth a visit. From Casanova Lerrone you can consider an alternative route down through a section of the Lerrone valley as far as Garlenda, "the Wine Town", at least just to admire ? Ruve de San Roccu, a monumental oak tree, 250 years old and 24 metres tall.

Walking along the border

This is a long route along the ridge that faithfully follows the extreme western border of the Riviera delle Palme area; it starts from the sea in Andora and crosses the countryside of the gentle hills that mark the boundary of the right-hand (southern) slope of the Merula valley, where the olive-covered terraces are followed by woods, chestnut forests and high meadows with views of the nearby Ligurian Alps, but where the blue of the sea is always just a glance away. All you have to do is turn round.

The route

The path marked with an starts from Andora railway station (10 m) and climbs immediately towards the villages of Pigna (89 m) and Rollo (126 m), clinging to the hills overlooking the sea. We reach the ridge that marks the western border of the Val Merula on the Colle di Cervo (324 m), where the border with the province of Imperia passes. From here to its end, the path follows the ridge which is both the orographic border of the valley and the provincial border. The path was taken by cattle going up to the high meadows to graze during the summer; it was used in the past as a communication route from the mountains to the sea for shepherds and their flocks. The route climbs up and down among olive groves, woods and meadows, crossing, one after the other, Passo Chiappa (383 m) where it meets the ancient Roman coastal road (the Julia Augusta Way) that led from Liguria towards Provence, Monte Chiappa (541 m) beyond which we come to a stone hut (one of those simple circular dry stone buildings very common in the Ligurian mountains, used for centuries by the farmers and shepherds as a refuge) and, further away, Pizzo Aguzzo (757 m) and Poggio Ceresa (913 m) and finally the highest peak on the route, Pizzo d'Evigno or Monte Torre (989 m). From its meadows which, in spring, are yellow with broom, para¬gliders and gliders take off; to the south and west of the peak, we can look down towards the valleys of the Imperia area; while to the north west we can see the peaks of the Maritime Alps. From Pizzo d'Evigno the path continues through similar scenery, but plunging further and further inland, touching Pizzo Montin (952 m), descending to the Passo di San Giacomo (760 m) where the ridge leaves the Merula valley and overlooks the Lerrone valley, still keeping the Imperia side of the Impero valley, on the left, towards the west. But it doesn't take long to reach the Passo di Ginestro (684 m), where we cross the provincial roads coming from the Merula, Lerrone and Impero valleys.