The Cavia round trip

The route begins at the crossroad between Via Adelasia and Via Cardellino, marked with a empty red circle and red line  on the first part of the uphill stretch. After the first 150 metres of Via Cardellino, turn right at the point where it joins Via Galliano, onto a cobbled path leading steeply uphill to the Palazzo region. The cobbled street rises to the east, running between the gardens of the historic villas of the English. At the stairway of one of the entrances to the Villa della Pergola, it turns left, passing under the driveway access to the Pergola gardens and taking you up alongside the perimeter fence. 

The constant uphill climb is steep, sunny and continues for more than a kilometre; every now and then, stop to catch your breath and enjoy the panorama, which gradually opens up over wider stretches of coastline, revealing the Gallinara Island.

Above the ‘‘Palazzo’’, an ancient country house on the slopes of the Moscai hill, the mule track joins the Cavia - Vegliasco panoramic road: a stretch of about one kilometre in an easterly direction. The bend in the road with panoramic views reaches 350 metres in altitude and is the highest point of the hike.

Shortly after the crossroad with the Castellaro road, the old mule track to Solva can be seen on the right, which leads down through an alternation of uncultivated and reclaimed land. The route takes you to Casa Morteo and through an olive grove until, after 400 metres, it joins the Solva - Cavia  road; from here it heads back into the olive groves below the road for about 30 metres or so, returning again to the paved road a few metres below. Once again, you leave the road and follow a dirt track downhill under the trees , which narrows between the perimeter walls of the land, jumps over two small waterways and becomes a little cobbled path that comes out at a decorated (inactive) drinking fountain above the houses of Solva.

Situated about 150 metres above sea level, you cross this pretty hamlet, heading down the alleyways of Via Airaldi and Via Lepanto you come to a well-known restaurant; following Via Ollandini and then Vicolo Fugassa you arrive at the small square of the parish Church where there’s a drinking fountain. 

It takes about ten minutes to return to the centre of Alassio from here following the wide footpath  with broad steps heading downhill. After crossing Solva road at a bend, the mule track ends behind the railway track, at the height of the Piazza Stalla gardens.