What to see in Sestri Levante, itinerary including the main monuments and places of interest, including Baia del Silenzio, Baia delle Favole, Church of San Nicolò dell'Isola, excursions Punta Manara.
Tourist information
Town of Liguria in the province of Genoa, Sestri Levante is located on the Riviera di Levante, overlooking the Gulf of Tigullio, lapped by two splendid bays, one of which is larger, called delle Favole, as Hans Christian Andersen called it, and another smaller, very suggestive, known as that of Silence.
The oldest part of the village stands on a small promontory joined to the mainland by an isthmus, which separates the two bays.
Sestri Levante, the ancient settlement of the Ligurian Tigulli, called Segesta Tigulliorum in Roman times, developed in the medieval period on the promontory in a fortified position, and then spread over the isthmus.
After the fifteenth century, the town expanded further on the alluvial plain, south of the Gromolo stream.
The village was dominated by the Genoese Fieschi family, then it was under the control of the Republic of Genoa, who built a castle surrounded by walls and towers on the cliff, on the site where today a medieval-style hotel structure stands.
Then the history of Sestri Levante followed the fate of the Republic of Genoa, until the Napoleonic conquest.
What see
In the place where since the fourteenth century there was a chapel, the Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth was built between 1604 and 1616, renovated in the nineteenth century with the addition on the facade of a neoclassical pronaos with Ionic columns and triangular tympanum.
Near this Parish Church, a paved street begins that leads to the top of the promontory, where the Romanesque Church of San Nicolò dell'Isola stands, Parochial from the twelfth to the seventeenth century, before the Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth was built.
The Church of San Nicolò dell'Isola, dating back to 1151, partially modified in the fifteenth century, and transformed in the Baroque era, is very similar to the original construction, thanks to a restoration carried out in the twentieth century.
At the highest point of the promontory stands the Marconi tower, which took this name after Guglielmo Marconi made the first radio transmission experiments there.
Recommended readings- San Remo (Liguria): what to see
- Liguria: Sunday day trips
- Gallinara (Liguria): what to see on the island
- Noli (Liguria): what to see
- La Spezia (Liguria): what to see
The territory of Sestri Levante offers the possibility to make interesting naturalistic excursions that mostly overlook the sea, such as the paths that extend on the Promontory of Punta Manara, Punta Baffe, and in the area of Sant'Anna.
