Sanremo (the Ligurian city of flowers and song — 18 km from the French border at Ventimiglia, on the western Ligurian Riviera) is the most specifically Italian city that most international visitors have never visited — known to every Italian for the annual Festival della Canzone Italiana and for the Mercato dei Fiori (the largest wholesale cut-flower market in Italy), but largely absent from international travel itineraries. The Sanremo Festival (the Festival della Canzone Italiana — held at the Teatro Ariston every February; the most watched non-sporting Italian television event of the year, with approximately 12-15 million viewers per evening) defines Italian popular music culture more than any other single event and has done so continuously since 1951. Liguria guide
Plan my Italy trip →Sanremo Festival: Teatro Ariston; every February; world's oldest continuously running pop music festival (1951) | Sanremo Casino: Corso degli Inglesi 18; 1905; one of 4 legally operating casinos in Italy | Mercato dei Fiori: Corso Garibaldi; daily 6am-1pm; largest Italian flower market | Location: 18 km from French border; Monaco 60 km | Train from Genova: 2h; EUR 15-20
The Festival della Canzone Italiana di Sanremo (the Sanremo Song Festival — held every February at the Teatro Ariston, Via Matteotti 124, Sanremo; tickets for the 5 evenings available at ticketone.it from December; prices EUR 60-350 per evening for the platea; the television broadcast airs on RAI 1 with approximately 12-15 million viewers per evening, making it the most-watched non-sporting event on Italian television): the most important Italian popular music event and the world's oldest continuously running popular music festival (established 1951, the same year as the Eurovision Song Contest which the Sanremo Festival directly inspired). The specific Sanremo Festival history: from 1951 to 1984, the Festival was held at the Sanremo Casino; the move to the Teatro Ariston in 1984 was necessitated by the growing television production requirements. The Festival has launched the international careers of specific Italian artists: Laura Pausini (Sanremo 1993 debut with Sola, which became the best-selling Italian song of that decade internationally); Andrea Bocelli (Sanremo 1994 debut with Il Mare Calmo della Sera); and Maneskin (Sanremo 2021 winners with Zitti e Buoni, which then won Eurovision 2021 — the first Italian Eurovision victory since 1990). The Festival week (typically the first week of February): the Sanremo historic centre fills with approximately 40,000 daily visitors; the Ariston box office queue and the Corso Matteotti outside-broadcast area are the specific Sanremo Festival public spaces. Liguria guide
The Casino Municipale di Sanremo (Corso degli Inglesi 18, Sanremo — open daily from 2:30pm for slots; from 3:30pm for table games; dress code from 8pm requires jacket for men; entry EUR 5 weekday, EUR 8 weekend; minimum age 18 with document): one of only 4 casinos legally operating in Italy (the others: the Casino di Campione d'Italia on Lake Lugano, the Casino de la Vallée in Saint-Vincent, Valle d'Aosta, and the Venice Casino at the Ca' Vendramin Calergi). The specific Italian casino restriction: the 1931 Fascist government-era ban on gambling in Italy was never applied to three specific border communities — Sanremo (bordering France), Campione d'Italia (the Italian enclave within Swiss territory), and Saint-Vincent (the Valle d'Aosta Alpine valley) — because the currency income from foreign gamblers crossing the border was considered economically essential. The Sanremo Casino building (1905, the Belle Époque architecture by Eugenio Ferret): the most elaborate casino building in Italy, with the Liberty-style facade, the painted ceilings, and the specific 1920s-1930s interior renovations. The Mercato dei Fiori di Sanremo (the Sanremo Flower Market — Corso Garibaldi, Sanremo; open Monday-Saturday 6am-1pm; the largest wholesale cut-flower market in Italy): Sanremo and the surrounding Ligurian Riviera di Ponente produce approximately 60% of Italian-grown cut flowers — the specific microclimate of the protected south-facing slopes behind the Ligurian coast (the Ligurian Alps blocking the northern cold air, the southern exposure facing the sea) creates the specific temperature regime that allows year-round flower production unavailable elsewhere in mainland Italy. The retail adjacent to the wholesale market allows individual purchases.
The Festival della Canzone Italiana di Sanremo (Teatro Ariston, Sanremo; every February; tickets at ticketone.it from December; EUR 60-350 per evening) is the world's oldest continuously running popular music festival (established 1951) and the most-watched non-sporting Italian television event (12-15 million viewers per evening on RAI 1). The Festival directly inspired Eurovision (1956). Famous Sanremo debuts: Laura Pausini (1993), Andrea Bocelli (1994), Maneskin (won 2021, then Eurovision 2021). Festival week: approximately 40,000 daily visitors in Sanremo; the Corso Matteotti and the Ariston box office area are the specific public gathering spaces.
The Casino Municipale di Sanremo (Corso degli Inglesi 18 — open daily from 2:30pm slots, 3:30pm table games; dress code jacket required from 8pm; EUR 5-8 entry; minimum age 18) is one of only 4 legally operating casinos in Italy. The 1931 Fascist gambling ban excluded Sanremo, Campione d'Italia, Saint-Vincent, and Venice specifically because the currency income from cross-border gamblers was considered essential. The Sanremo Casino (1905, Belle Époque by Eugenio Ferret) hosted the Festival della Canzone Italiana from 1951 to 1984 before the television production requirements forced the move to the Teatro Ariston.
The Mercato dei Fiori di Sanremo (Corso Garibaldi, Sanremo — Monday-Saturday 6am-1pm; the largest wholesale cut-flower market in Italy): Sanremo and the surrounding Ligurian Riviera di Ponente produce approximately 60% of Italian-grown cut flowers. The specific microclimate: the Ligurian Alps behind the coast block the northern cold air; the south-facing slopes facing the sea maintain temperatures 4-6°C above the Piemontese plain year-round. The flower production tradition: primarily carnations (garofani), roses (the Sanremo rose varieties), and mimosa (the yellow acacia flower that is the Italian symbol of International Women's Day, March 8). Retail access adjacent to the wholesale market.
Sanremo access: by train from Genova (the Intercity from Genova Piazza Principe to Sanremo takes approximately 2h; EUR 15-20; the coastal route along the Ligurian Riviera di Ponente is one of the most scenic Italian railway journeys); from Nice, France (approximately 1h10 by regional train via Ventimiglia — the Italian border crossing; the cross-border train requires a French or Italian Interrail pass or separate ticket for each segment; approximately EUR 20). By car from Milan: approximately 230 km via the A7-A26-A10 motorways; approximately 2h30. Sanremo is 18 km from Ventimiglia (the Italian-French border) and 60 km from Monaco — a specific day trip from both Monaco and Nice is practical.
The Ligurian Riviera di Ponente food tradition (the western Ligurian coast from Genova to Ventimiglia): the specific local dishes include the stoccafisso accomodato (the Ligurian stewed salt cod with tomatoes, potatoes, and olives — the Sanremo version of the baccalà); the coniglio alla Ligure (rabbit in the specific Ligurian olive-taggiasca-and-pine-nut sauce — the local olive variety, the taggiasca, is a small, extremely mild, black olive from the Imperia province hills); and the specific local pasta format the trofie (the short twisted pasta of the western Liguria, made without eggs, the specific format for the pesto genovese). The taggiasca olive oil (from the Liguria Riviera di Ponente olive variety — the most mild and delicate Italian olive oil, with the lowest bitterness and the highest sweet-fruit note) is the specific Sanremo-area food souvenir.
February Festival week tickets ticketone.it EUR 60-350 + Casino Municipale 1905 Belle Époque + Mercato dei Fiori 6am-1pm + Ventimiglia France 18km border.
Plan my trip →Sanremo Festival history: the first edition was held January 29-February 1, 1951, at the Sanremo Casino (not the Teatro Ariston, which wasn't used until 1984). The founding concept: a competition of new Italian songs, broadcast on RAI Radio (television came later). The first winner: Nilla Pizzi with 'Grazie dei fior' (Thank you for the flowers) in 1951. The specific Sanremo Festival cultural influence: Italy's Sanremo Festival directly inspired the Eurovision Song Contest (established 1956 — the Eurovision founding meeting in 1955 explicitly referenced the Sanremo model). The format: five evenings of competition; the first four evenings progressively eliminate entries; the final evening determines the winner by a combined jury and public telephone vote. The Sanremo winner traditionally represents Italy at Eurovision — Maneskin won both Sanremo 2021 and Eurovision 2021.
The Riviera dei Fiori (the Riviera of Flowers — the informal name for the western Ligurian Riviera di Ponente from Ventimiglia to San Remo): the specific microclimate (the Ligurian Alps blocking northern cold air; south-facing slopes with the sea in front) produces year-round flower growing conditions that generate approximately 60% of Italian-grown cut flowers. The Sanremo region produces: carnations (garofani — the dominant crop; the specific Sanremo carnation varieties have been developed since the 19th century for vase longevity); roses (Rosa varieties developed for the specific Ligurian climate); and the mimosa (Acacia dealbata — the yellow fluffy flower that appears in February-March and is the specific symbol of Italian International Women's Day March 8). The specific mimosa connection: the Corso Matteotti in Sanremo is lined with mimosa trees that flower exactly during the Festival della Canzone Italiana.
Sanremo day trips: the Hanbury Botanical Gardens (the Giardini Botanici Hanbury — Corso Montecarlo 43, Ventimiglia, 18 km from Sanremo; EUR 10; open daily 10am-5pm; the most complete Mediterranean botanical collection in Italy, established by the British merchant Thomas Hanbury on the cliff above the sea in 1867; the cliff garden with 5,000+ plant species is one of the most beautiful in Italy); Monaco (60 km from Sanremo by train via Ventimiglia — 1h; the Monte Carlo casino and the Oceanographic Museum; the Prince's Palace; day trip possible); and Dolceacqua (the most beautiful inland Ligurian village — 25 km from Sanremo in the Nervia valley; the Doria castle ruins; the medieval bridge that Monet painted in 1884 — the painting is now at the Musée Marmottan Paris; the Rossese di Dolceacqua DOC red wine, the only Ligurian red wine of significance).
The Mercato Annonario di Sanremo (the covered market — Piazza Eroi Sanremesi, Sanremo; open Monday-Saturday 7am-1pm): the most authentic daily market in the western Liguria. The specific Sanremo market products: the taggiasca olives (small, black, extremely mild olives from the Imperia province hill groves — sold loose from the barrels in the market; the most distinctively Ligurian food product); the taggiasca olive oil (the mildest and most delicate of Italian olive oils; EUR 15-25 per litre for local production); local Ligurian fish (the agoni, the small Ligurian mullet, the triglie — red mullet — from the western Ligurian fishing fleet); and the Sanremo flower market overflow (the wholesale Corso Garibaldi market spills into the retail market on Saturday morning).
The Balzi Rossi (the Red Rocks — the prehistoric site on the Ligurian-French border cliff, 2 km from Ventimiglia and 20 km from Sanremo; EUR 4 for the museum; the caves are free to visit externally): the most important prehistoric site in Italy for the study of Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens. The Balzi Rossi grottos contain the evidence of Aurignacian and Gravettian culture (approximately 40,000-18,000 years before present): the most significant findings include the triple burial of an adult male with two adolescents decorated with hundreds of Cyclope perforated shells (the first evidence of funerary ceremony with body adornment in Italy); the Venus of Willendorf-style female figurines carved from soapstone; and the Romagnano Man skeleton (approximately 24,000 BP). The Balzi Rossi Museo Preistorico (adjacent to the caves; EUR 4; open Tuesday-Sunday 8:30am-7:30pm) displays the original finds; a day trip from Sanremo to Ventimiglia for the Balzi Rossi and the French border market (the largest Italian-French border market, every Friday) takes 1-2 hours.