This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

There is an unmissable village of artists, not that far from Sanremo. Built on the ruins of a medieval town hit by a violent earthquake in 1887, it was then abandoned for over sixty years. At the end of 1950s, Bussana Vecchia was chosen by Turin ceramist Mario Giani, also known as Clizia, as the perfect place where to set up shop. Here, he also founded the International Colony of Artists, attracting painters, sculptors and writers from Italy and Europe, enchanted by this quaint hamlet which appears somehow “frozen in time”.

The new inhabitants began to recover and renovate the most accessible buildings, respecting their historical features and heritage. They also drafted a “Constitution” to regulate the life of the country, establishing, for example, that the ruins were not to be owned by anyone in particular. Therefore, any new settler would have to choose its own and renovate it using only the materials still found in the area.

Today, although much has changed since the ancient the past, Bussana Vecchia remains a fairy-tale place and is a real open-air art laboratory, full of shops and ateliers inside in ancient stone abodes. Along the small streets and quaint alleys, there are several murals, sculptures, and frescoes. The church of Sint Egidio, never restored, still shows traces of the original, centuries-old stuccoes and paintings. And there are hundreds of cats as well, as it usually happens in Liguria…

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)