Palms, pastel houses and a bay that faces due south: Ospedaletti is the Riviera dei Fiori at its most relaxed, a small Ligurian town tucked between Sanremo and Bordighera with its feet in the sea and terraced hills behind it. The old coast railway has been moved inland into a tunnel, and its former line along the shore is now a cycle and walking path, so the seafront is quieter than you might expect on such a crowded coast.
The name comes from a hospice, an ospedaletto, that the Knights of Rhodes are said to have founded here for pilgrims and travellers in the Middle Ages, and the town later became a winter resort for wealthy northern Europeans who came for the mild climate. For anyone with petrol in the blood, though, Ospedaletti means racing. In the years after the Second World War, the streets of the town formed a road circuit that hosted car Grands Prix and motorcycle races, a fast, dangerous loop through the villas and along the corniche above the sea. Ride the Corso Regina Margherita and you are on part of the old course.
The Via Aurelia, the old Roman road along the coast, runs through the town and is the main way in, slow and often congested in summer, with buses, scooters and cyclists. The more interesting riding lies in the hills: narrow roads climb steeply through olive groves and greenhouses to villages like Seborga, a tiny hilltop village that half-jokingly calls itself an independent principality, and Vallebona, with its flower terraces. These lanes are tight, sometimes broken, and very steep in places, with superb views back over the sea.
The rides from here head west and north into France, toward the Mercantour and the Col de Turini, through Ventimiglia and up the Roya valley or over to Sospel. It is a quick change of scene: within an hour the palms and flowers give way to gorges, chestnut woods and hairpins climbing toward the high Alps. Plan the crossing for early morning, before the coast traffic builds up.
Ospedaletti has cafes, bars and seafront restaurants, and Ligurian food is a pleasure: focaccia, farinata made from chickpea flour, pesto and local olive oil from the Taggiasca olives grown in the hills. The beach is pebbly and the water clear, so a swim at the end of the ride is easy in summer. For fuel and a wider choice of shops, Bordighera and Sanremo are each a few minutes along the coast.