Moneglia

The village of Moneglia is located on the Riviera di Levante, east of Genoa. Belonging to the association of the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy, Moneglia is located within a wide bay bordered by two promontories, both rich in Mediterranean vegetation and pine forests: to the west stretches the promontory of punta Moneglia and to the east that of punta Rospo. While the former is entirely wild and accessible only by footpaths, the latter has several residential areas all the way to the village of Lemeglio. The ancient toponym of Moneglia (ad Monilia) appears in the Tavola Peutingeriana, a copy of the military map of the Roman Empire (11th – 12th century), discovered by the Augsburg antiquarian Corrado Peutinger in the 16th century.

The village, formerly inhabited by the Liguri Lapicini people, was a very important center in Roman times due to its strategic location on the ancient Via Aurelia. During the seventh century, the monks of Bobbio spread monasticism to the Moneglia area and into eastern Liguria, descending from their possessions in the Aveto, Sturla and Fontanabuona valleys. The monastic order directly owned the port, Alpe Adra, with the Petronio valley, Mount San Nicolao, the coast between Sestri Levante, the town and the tip of Moneglia and Deiva Marina and also the whole territory up to the forest of Montelungo di Pontremoli.
In the Middle Ages it suffered, like other coastal towns in eastern Liguria, the invasion of Saracen pirates who plundered the town; in particular, a widespread local legend states that the present-day hill town of Lemeglio was stormed in the 11th century by pirates with the killing of almost all the inhabitants and the kidnapping of more than twenty maidens and women.

The village of Moneglia is dominated by no less than two fortresses. To the east, the Fortress of Villafranca, was erected by the Republic of Genoa around 1130 to defend and watch the coast. To the west is the fortress of Monleone, erected in 1173. In June 2008 the town was awarded the Green Key: the international environmental label for eco-sustainable tourism. It also holds, together with the Friulian town of Grado, the Italian record for awarding Blue Flags continuously since 1990.

The main product of this strip of Ligurian land is olive oil, which has been awarded the DOP “Riviera Ligure di Levante” in recent years. Moneglia oil goes well with fish dishes and the Mediterranean diet, of which Ligurian cuisine is one of the highest expressions. Vines are also widely cultivated, particularly on the hills between San Saturnino and Lemeglio, from which “Bianco di Moneglia” wine is made.