Italy Travel And Hotel Guide

Many Genoese escape the city in summer by heading for the hills. The Genoa tourist office has the useful Antola and its Valleys booklet in English, complete with itinerary suggestions, a map and details of walks. AMT buses from Genoa’s Piazza della Vittoria serve all the larger villages. Look out wherever you are for breads and pastas prefabricated with local chestnut flour, as well as scarpignon , pasta stuffed with a meat and walnut paste. Narrow-gauge trains - worth taking just for the intoxicant of it - leave roughly hourly from a station in Genoa’s Piazza Manin, connected to Brignole by bus #33 and Principe by bus #34/. The FGC trains (tel 010.837.321) aren’t covered by Genoa’s normal bus tickets: one-way fares to Casella are L3100/¬1.60 (L4300/¬2.22 on Sun). They start off climbing through the Val Bisagno - from an primeval stop, Trensasco , there’s a scenic three-hour achievement that heads back down into Genoa past three medieval hill-fortresses - and coil northwards up to CASELLA , in a wooded dell at the foot of Monte Maggio (55min from Genoa). This little town is the trailhead for a number of hiking routes in the picturesque Valle Scrivia ( www.altavallescrivia.it ). If you show a train ticket at the little office in front of Casella station, you can rent a mountain-bike for L7000/¬3.61 per hour, or L20,000/¬10.33 per day (bookings on tel 010.967.7520). Casella has a couple of hotels , of which the Magenta is the better bet, Piazza XXV Aprile 20 (tel 010.967.7113; L60,000-90,000/¬30.99-46.48); there are half-a-dozen restaurants , including Camugin (closed Mon) in front of the church, known for its fresh fish, and Chiara (closed Mon) with a wood-fired pizza oven.

Northeast of Genoa, buses follow the SS225 road over the Passo di Scoffera to little Torriglia , which offers the photogenic ruins of a medieval castle and plenty of hiking trails into the mountains of the Parco Naturale dell’Antola ( www.parks.it ). The tourist office is at Via N.S. della Provvidenza 3 (tel 010.944.931, www.telecentroantola.it ) and the basic Della Posta hotel is at Via Matteotti 39 (tel 010.944.050; L60,000-90,000/¬30.99-46.48). From Torriglia, the SS45 heads northeast along the Val Trebbia through Montebruno , famed for its richly decorated fifteenth-century Santuario dell’Assunta (containing a Byzantine carving of the Madonna) and its mushroom-shaped chocolates called funghetti . Minor roads from Montebruno serve the mountain community of FONTANIGORDA , set further easterly amongst beech and chestnut woods and famous for its thirteen fountains. A scenic travel trail from here heads up and over the Passo di Esola to Rezzoáglio , which lies within striking distance of Santo Stefano d’Aveto. Fontanigorda’s hotels include the good-value Fontanella , Piazza Roma 7 (tel 010.952.000, fax 010.542.825; L60,000-90,000/¬30.99-46.48), with en suite and shared-bath rooms, and the adequate Augustus , Via Fontana Vecchia 1 (tel 010.952.014; L90,000-120,000/¬46.48-61.98), both with restaurants . The main SS45 continues over the mountains to Piacenza .

Off to the west of Bolzaneto a few kilometres north of Genoa, a minor road off the SS35 heads to the hilltop sanctuary of vocalist della Guardia , for centuries the prime pilgrimage spot for the Genoese. The SS35 continues north up the valley, with buses passing through tiny Ronco Scrivia , which has an captivating medieval bridge over the river with three pointed arches, and Isole del Cantone , where a minor road climbs right up a wild side-valley towards Vobbia; a few kilometres into the valley, high up on the left (north) side, you’ll spot the towers of the Castello della Pietra , a thirteenth-century castle, recently restored, which sits in a dramatic spot wedged between rock pinnacles above the thick forest; if you have the puff, climb the steep path up to it for spectacular valley views.

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