Diano San Pietro in Italy | Province of Imperia, Liguria

This municipality is formed of two towns on the sunny slopes of the San Pietro Valley. Dominating the lower town is the parish church, one of the most important in the area (the christening font dates from the eleventh century). All that is left of the original late medieval building is the bell tower. It is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul and was reconstructed in Baroque style in the second half of the eighteenth century. The parvis is paved with pebbles and it was surrounded by a wall in 1564 as a defence against Saracen invasions. The interior preserves a painting of the martyrdom of San Giovanni Battista attributed to Giovanni Battista Paggi and a fine seventeenth-century marble pulpit.

Along the road to Diano San Pietro there are two buildings that were once used for control and defence of the valley: the square "Camandone" barracks building and the "Molino Arduino", a fortified mill.

Just outside the town, when you have crossed the bridge over the Rio San Pietro, you will come to the district of Colla, where you can admire the recently-restored sanctuary of the Madonna della Neve. In the church of the Natività di Maria in Borganzo, you can see a fine poliptych by Antonio Brea: the Madonna della Consolazione (1518). There is a very old humpback bridge over the San Pietro at Roncagli. At one time, the valley was full of mills producing Taggia olive oil. Besides olive-oil production, the local economy is based on the cultivation of vegetables, fruit and basil, which is the main ingredient of the typical local liqueur. Among the many local summer festivals, the most famous is the one dedicated to a pasta dish called "trenette al pesto", which is accompanied by a classic Ligurian wine called Pigato.

Diano San Pietro lies, if seen from the sea, upwards and right of Diano Marina. In Diano Marina there is a very good infrastructure with countless restaurants, shops, cafés, bars and discos, as well as tennis courts, bowling, bicycle rentals and many other diverse sporting opportunities. Many excursions can be undertaken from here.

From Diano San Pietro, the road follows the same named river(which powered the many olive mills) to Diano Borganzo, whose hamlets all lie on a steep slope. Here you will find the town church, Natività di Maria, built in the 19th century, where you can see a fine polyptych by Antonio Brea: the Madonna della Consolazione (1518). In the small Roncagli, a small medieval bridge over the San Pietro river leads you down the road to Virgili and Diano Arentino.