What is Badalucco known for?

Badalucco-style stockfish stewed with tomato and olives, celebrated the third Sunday of September at the village festival. Indigenous bean of the Argentina Valley terraces, a Slow Food Presidium and the basis of the local Città dell'Olio cuisine. Contemporary murals and trompe-l'oeil panels painted across the stone alleys of the centro storico, a 1980s art project on the medieval shell.

Badalucco is a comune in the province of Imperia, Liguria region of Italy, about 155 kilometers from Genova.

Liguria · Imperia

Badalucco

A medieval village wrapped in a bend of the Argentina torrent, with murals on its caruggi and a Slow Food bean on its terraces.

155 km / 96 mi

Nearest hub (Genova)

1,072

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Badalucco sitsin the middle Valle Argentina, fifteen kilometers north of Imperia. The torrent that gives the valley its name runs in a wide bend below the village. The site changed hands between Ligures and Rome in 181 BC, became a fief of the Counts of Ventimiglia, and passed to the Republic of Genova in 1259. The seventeenth century rebuilt the parish Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta e San Giorgio in full Baroque, with a square bell tower and a fifteenth-century polyptych attributed to Giovanni Canavesio. The caruggi of stone houses are painted with contemporary murals and trompe-l'oeil, a more recent layer over the medieval shell. The Rundin bean, an indigenous variety grown on the terraces, is a Slow Food Presidium. Stoccafisso alla badalucchese, stockfish stewed in tomato and olives, is the dish: the third Sunday of September brings the Stockfish Festival to the square.

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Gallery

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Known for

Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta e San Giorgio
Seventeenth-century Baroque parish church with a square bell tower, holding a fifteenth-century polyptych attributed to Giovanni Canavesio and a seventeenth-century wooden crucifix.
Chiesa di San Niccolò
Hilltop church above the old village, on the site of a former noble castle that served as a lookout over the valley.
Ponte sull'Argentina
Stone bridge across the torrent that wraps the village, connecting the centro storico to the valley road.
Centro storico
Stone caruggi painted with murals and trompe-l'oeil panels, a contemporary art layer over the medieval grid.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into October are the dry months in the Argentina Valley. The terraces above the village hold olive groves, the Rundin bean, and pockets of grapevine. July and August push into the low thirties, but the valley keeps a few degrees cooler than the coast. The third Sunday of September is the Stockfish Festival, when the stoccafisso simmers in vats in the main square. November through March is quiet. The torrent runs high after autumn rain, the murals look duller under cloud, and the bakeries on the main road shorten their hours.