Alassio ( lij, Arasce) is a town and ''
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
'' in the
province of Savona
The province of Savona ( it, provincia di Savona; Ligurian: ''provinsa de Sann-a'') is a province in the Liguria region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Savona, which has a population of 61,219 inhabitants. The province has a total populatio ...
situated in the western coast of
Liguria
Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...
,
Northern Italy
Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...
, approximately from the
French border.
Alassio is known for its natural and scenic views. The town centre is crossed by a pedestrianised cobbled road known as the Budello.
The town has sandy beaches, blue sea and many bars and restaurants on the sea front. Alassio has also a pier known as "Molo di Alassio" or "Pontile Bestoso" which offers views of the town. The town is famous for its "Muretto di Alassio", a wall with signatures onto coloured ceramic tiles.
Alassio is situated on the
Riviera di Ponente
The Italian Riviera or Ligurian Riviera ( it, Riviera ligure; lij, Rivêa lìgure) is the narrow coastal strip in Italy which lies between the Ligurian Sea and the mountain chain formed by the Maritime Alps and the Apennines. Longitudinall ...
coast, and it has a small tourist port (porticciolo) named "Luca Ferrari". It was also known as a health resort in winter and a bathing place in summer, and has many hotels.
Heritage
The English composer
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
wrote a concert-overture called ''
In the South (Alassio)'' whilst staying on holiday in Alassio in the winter of 1903–04.
Alassio is featured as the location for a holiday in the 1944 film ''
The Children Are Watching Us
''The Children Are Watching Us'' ( it, I bambini ci guardano) is a 1943 Italian drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica.
Plot
Pricò is a young Italian boy who lives with his parents in a middle-class household. His mother, Nina, takes him to a ...
''.
The painter
Felix Nussbaum
Felix Nussbaum (December 11, 1904 – August 9, 1944) was a German Jews, German-Jewish surrealist Painting, painter. Nussbaum’s work gives insights into the essence of one person among the victims of the Holocaust.
Early life and education
N ...
(1904–1944) stayed in Alassio in 1934 and it appears on many of his lighter paintings. The painters
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s u ...
and her husband
Robert Motherwell
Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American Abstract Expressionism, abstract expressionist Painting, painter, printmaker, and editor of ''The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology''. He was one of the youngest of th ...
summered and worked there in 1960.
International relations
Twin towns – Sister cities
Alassio is
twinned with:
*
La Thuile, Italy (2013)
References
Sources
*
*
External links
*
Alassio Travel Guide
{{Liguria-geo-stub