Diano

Diano is treated here as a single destination — Diano Castello, the medieval hilltop, and Diano Marina, the seaside resort it spawned. Both sit on the Bay of Diano on the Riviera dei Fiori, share the same Taggiasca olive-growing valley, and historically were one commune until Diano Marina was made independent in 1923. Diano Castello above the bay, is a Borghi più belli d'Italia member built on a Roman site (the name traces to the Latin Dianum, a temple to Diana) and circled by 13th-century Bourbon walls.

Its old town is a knot of vaulted alleys and stone staircases climbing to the parish church of San Nicola di Bari. Diano Marina below has the longest Bandiera Blu beach on the western Ligurian coast, a palm-lined seafront, and the Sant'Antonio sanctuary which holds the Madonna del Rosario procession every August. Both are Città dell'Olio members on the strength of the Oliva Taggiasca, the small dark olive that defines western Ligurian olive oil; the Museo dell'Olivo in Diano Marina runs the regional story from Roman amphorae forward. The bay is sheltered, south-facing, and the climate is one of the mildest on the Italian Riviera.