BERGEGGI SPOTORNO NOLI Alta Via del Golfo dell'Isola

25 km from Bergeggi to Noli walking along the beautiful ridge overlooking the sea, crossing environments of high scenic and naturalistic value, from the cork oak forest of Bergeggi to the Mediterranean scrubland. A wonderful path where looking along the coast often peeps out the island of Bergeggi.

You start from the sea with your back to the island to climb the steep steps that characterize Bergeggi. You reach the Cork Grove of Natte, the largest expanse of Cork Oaks in the Western Riviera and continue uphill all the way to Mount Rocchetto. Here we stop to admire the view from where the Fort St. Helena, erupted in 1921. From there we admire the whole town from above and at the bottom along the coast the Island. We are at the point where paragliders take off. After a short pause to admire the view, the trail continues through a mixed forest and then climbs to the top of the Mount St. Helens, where some perimeter walls of the ancient pre-Roman Ligurian castellaro can be seen. On the way down we pass by an ancient quarry and then on the way up to Mount Mao we encounter another now disused quarry where vegetation has taken over. Here in spring everything is tinged with yellow and pink. It is the gorse and cistus that stand out among the Mediterranean scrub with their intense colors. Once we reach the Mount Mao the gaze embraces everything the Gulf of the Island by Cape Vado a Cape Noli. When the sky is clear, one can admire all of Eastern Liguria and Il Ponente as far as Gallinara Island, which can be seen behind Cape Noli. From the southwest the “finger” of Corsica juts out toward us. Behind Mount Mao the industrial area of Vado Ligure makes us reflect on the effects of anthropization in the territory.

We continue to the area called Trevo, where the colorful Cascina Trevo stands, continue to the Bric Colombino always with our eyes turned toward the sea and surrounded by Mediterranean scrub and then plunge into a mixed forest with a predominance of chestnut trees that gives us an idea of the sudden change of environments. We entered the territory of Vezzi, the wildest part of the The Gulf of the Island, characterized by lush forests and majestic views stretching as far as the Capo Mele promontory and all of eastern Liguria.

We descend to the Manie, the plateau overlooking the Finale area, and from here we cross the promontory of Capo Noli with the island of Bergeggi on the left and the island of Gallinara on the right. Noli seems like a mirage down there. We descend through Mediterranean scrub that has taken over where until the last century there were terraces planted with vines and olive trees. On our path remains of medieval churches and an ancient Lazzaretto. There at the end the towers. We arrived in Noli.

We also recommend our guided tour of Bergeggi and the guided tour of Noli