Deiva Marina is a pleasant seaside resort a stone’s distance from the Tigullio and from the Parco Naturale delle Cinque Terre. A long-standing favourite of Ligurian tourism, it boasts a quiet atmosphere, beautiful beaches, excellent accommodation facilities and a tourist information centre. Recently, its waters have been awarded the international F.E.E.E. Blue Flag.
Easily reachable by car and train, Deiva deserves your commitment for an environment-friendly stay: choose ecological means of transport (bicycle or feet) and tour the area at your own pleasure. The landscape is a Mediterranean feast of sandy beaches, tiny coves, thick woods and centuries-old creuze climbing through the hills among cultivated terraces, the reign of olive trees, vineyards and dry-stone walls – not to forget painters, poets and photographers.
The vegetation is an array of cluster pines, chestnut trees, helm-oaks and cork oaks, traversed by trails heading to the most secret heart of the area. Natural and cultural excursions lead to a host of hamlets - an itinerary follows the tracks of the ancient Via Francigena, once thread by pilgrims and wayfarers. Do not miss a drive to the Passo del Bracco, providing corners of enchantment and breathtaking views in a habitat crystallized in time. Farming was probably introduced in the district by laymen and clergymen from the renowned Abbazia of Bobbio, founded in the early Middle Ages by the Irish monk Saint Columbanus as a stronghold of faith, knowledge and agriculture. In the following centuries the area was the seat of numberless feudal struggles, up to the Genoese conquest, which put an end to the alliance between the powerful families of the Da Passano, Fieschi and Malaspina. A token of the domination of the Republic of Genoa is the Saracen tower standing in the centre of the resort. Traces of this age of intense devotion and belligerency show in a dense network of churches, sanctuaries, oratories and ruins. Like several other coastal villages, the first settlements were located inland for defensive reasons – commercial boost on the seashore being a more recent phenomenon. Deiva Marina’s dualism is the asset of assets: the coast intertwines continually with the entroterra in a mix of traditions that reverberate also in the flavours of local gastronomy – the triumph of fish (anchovies reign in a hundred recipes), vegetables, oil, white wines and sparkling lemons, yellow way marks dotting the Ligurian Riviere. All year round vacations, fit for every tourist target, are the area’s precious treasure: the sea sun summer formula is in fact completed by cultural and religious events, as well as by any sports activity you can imagine. A blue&green holiday, relaxing and dynamic, full of suntan, trekking, shopping (Saturday is market day) and diving.