Alassio Culture

Alassio's culture is an import that stayed. The hills above the beach carry villas that the encyclopaedia describes as for the most part the property of English citizens, who have always shown a particular affection for the town, and it records that Alassio is often considered a sort of "English colony". The physical evidence is still in daily use: an Anglican church rebuilt above the railway line in the late 1920s, the Hanbury tennis club founded in 1923, streets named Viale Daniel Hanbury and Viale Gibb, and pharmacies trading as the Farmacia Inglese and the Farmacia Angloamericana.

The library is the part that can be counted. The English Library, founded in 1875 by the Anglican chaplain John Hayes, was built outside the church so that parishioners going home could leave behind books they did not want to carry. It is one of the oldest English libraries in Italy and in Europe and is second in Italy for the number and importance of its English-language volumes, after Florence's. It survived both world wars and the decline of the colony itself. The civic library "Renzo Deaglio", on piazza Airaldi e Durante with the beaches in front of it, holds the collection of the former Anglican church, has a local-history section covering the wider Riviera, and runs its literary evenings in an auditorium named for a former director, Roberto Baldassarre.

The dialect is in retreat and the frazioni are its last ground. Arascin — also called Ligurian of Alassio, classified in the Albenganese western Ligurian group and close to the speech of Laigueglia — has progressively given way to Genoese in the town. In the hill villages, where the population is older, a fairly archaic form persists, and the cadence changes from frazione to frazione. It has two orthographies, the old one and a standardised version produced by the Consulta Ligure with the help of glottologists, because the original spelling looked too French. Courses are still run by associations such as the Associazione Vecchia Alassio.

Painting is the local trade after the sea. Mario Berrino, who made the Muretto, and Luciano Lanati were both from here. The seventeenth-century palazzo Morteo holds some twenty canvases by the writer and painter Carlo Levi, mostly of the hill landscape behind the town and its vegetation. The Richard West Memorial Gallery is devoted to the Dublin-born Irish painter Richard Whateley West, who died at Fiesole. Among the works shown is a picture of Alassio station, recording the 1934 stay of the German painter Felix Nussbaum, born at Osnabruck, who died at Auschwitz in 1944. The third museum is the natural sciences collection "San Giovanni Bosco" at the Salesian Institute.

And four directors have filmed here. Alfred Hitchcock shot brief scenes of the silent The Pleasure Garden in 1925; Vittorio De Sica filmed the beach and the railway for I bambini ci guardano in 1943; Carlo Vanzina brought Paolo Villaggio here for Io no spik inglish in 1995; and sequences of Inkheart were shot at the station in 2008. The most useful of them is the least distinguished: Guy Green's thriller The Snorkel, 1958, which shows more of Alassio than any other film — Villa della Pergola, the Punta Murena beach, the isola Gallinara, the town hall and two of the old hotels.

Verified against Wikipedia, October 2026.

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Checked against Wikipedia — During the nineteenth century the arrival of the Genoa-Ventimiglia railway marked the beginning of Alassio's path towards its status as a renowned international tourist destination, particularly appreciated by English visitors, among whom the figure of Sir Thomas Hanbury stands out. Several other prominent English families chose Alassio as their residence, including the Gibb, McMurdo and Hanbury families. The English played a significant role in the promotion of the culture of Alassio, so much so that the town is often considered a sort of "English colony", with numerous structures and places linked to English culture, such as the English library, the "Hanbury" tennis club and the Anglican church. The English Library was founded in 1875 by the Anglican pastor John Hayes, who was one of the first Anglican chaplains of the town. Hayes built a library outside the Anglican church of Alassio, so that parishioners returning home might leave the books they did not want to carry with them. It is one of the oldest English libraries in Italy and in Europe, and is the second library in Italy for the number and importance of its volumes in the English language, surpassed only by the English library of Florence. The place survived the two world wars, and the decline of the vast English presence in favour of other peoples., The dialect of Alassio -- in the local speech arascin, also called Ligurian of Alassio -- is the dialect spoken at Alassio and in its frazioni. It has progressively ceded ground to Genoese over time; however, in the frazioni, thanks to the presence of an elderly population, the use of a fairly archaic Alassio dialect still persists, and among these the cadences and other elements of the dialect change from frazione to frazione. It is classified in the group of the Albenganese western Ligurian, with some similarity to the dialect of Laigueglia. The Alassio dialect has two orthographies, the old orthography and the uniform orthography; the Consulta Ligure, observing the similarity between the initial orthography and the French, decided to standardise the old spelling with a new one, availing itself of the assistance of glottologists. The dialect is still taught today through courses carried forward by associations that promote the tradition of Alassio, such as the Associazione Vecchia Alassio. At Alassio is found the Richard West Memorial Gallery, dedicated to the work of the Irish painter Richard Whateley West, a native of Dublin who died at Fiesole. The seventeenth-century palazzo Morteo houses instead a collection of some twenty paintings by the writer and painter Carlo Levi, which portray principally the hill landscape surrounding Alassio and its luxuriant vegetation; among the works exhibited there is a painting depicting the station of Alassio, testimony of the stay of the German painter Felix Nussbaum in 1934, who was born at Osnabruck and was one of the victims of the Holocaust, perishing at Auschwitz in 1944. Alassio has also been the home of numerous painters of international fame, among them Mario Berrino and Luciano Lanati. The town museums are the natural sciences museum "San Giovanni Bosco" at the Salesian Institute of the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, the West Gallery, and the Pinacoteca "Carlo Levi". The civic library "Renzo Deaglio", facing on to the central piazza Airaldi e Durante and on to the beaches of Alassio, gathers the ideal inheritance of the library of the former Anglican church, constituted by the book bequests of the English tourists who frequented the town at the beginning of the twentieth century, with collections of value. Equipped with wi-fi for free internet connection and with a multimedia room, for some years it has hosted the literary encounters previously held in various areas of the town and today transferred to the auditorium named after Roberto Baldassarre, a former director of the library. The library also contains a "local history" section., At Alassio, Alfred Hitchcock shot brief scenes of The Pleasure Garden, a silent film of 1925. In 1943 Vittorio De Sica shot there some sequences -- the beach and the railway above all -- of his I bambini ci guardano. In 1958 the English director Guy Green filmed at Alassio the thriller The Snorkel, with recognisable shots of Villa della Pergola, of the beach of Punta Murena, of the isola Gallinara, of the palazzo del Comune, of the Hotel Suisse and of the Hotel Europa & Concordia; although it is a B-movie, and unfortunately in black and white, Green's film is undoubtedly the one in which the most glimpses and views of Alassio are to be seen. In 1995 Carlo Vanzina shot there some scenes of the comedy Io no spik inglish, with Paolo Villaggio as protagonist. At Alassio -- in particular at the local railway station -- some sequences were shot of the 2008 fantasy Inkheart by Iain Softley, with Brendan Fraser, Andy Serkis, Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent as protagonists., The Villa della Pergola is a historic residence of Alassio in Italy. The land on the hill of Alassio on which the villa stands was bought in 1876 by general William Montagu Scott McMurdo, who, together with his compatriot George Henderson Gibb, was among the first Britons to spend the winter period in the locality of Alassio. General McMurdo then had built, upon a pre-existing residence of the Counts della Lengueglia, a small villa in Anglo-Indian style baptised "Casa Napier" in honour of his father-in-law, general Sir Charles Napier; the villa proper, of eclectic style, was instead erected from 1880. From 1922 the property subsequently belonged to the Hanbury family. During the war period the estate remained closed and subject to confiscation; because of the lack of maintenance and the intrusions of wild animals a significant deterioration of the park occurred, a situation that worsened during the occupation of the German troops between 1943 and 1945. From the early nineteen-eighties the property passed temporarily to the De Martini family, who carried out some restoration interventions limited exclusively to the buildings. In 2006 the Park and the villas were the object of a judicial auction sale and were subsequently bought by a group led by Silvia and Antonio Ricci. In collaboration with the competent authorities, actions of conservation and recovery were carried out to preserve the historic dwellings and the garden, which was subsequently returned to public enjoyment. The two main villas present an eclectic style. An element of note is given by the dome clad in polychrome majolica of Albisola. The villas, today part of Relais & Chateaux, are immersed in a vast visitable park, rich in botanical species., The Tennis club Hanbury of Alassio was founded in 1923 by an Englishman: Daniel, brother of the owner of the botanical gardens, Thomas., In 1912 Alassio saw the opening of its municipal Casino, a significant addition to the social and cultural life of the town. However, this structure was demolished in 1936 to give space to the creation of piazza Littorio, today known as Piazza Partigiani; following the closure of the municipal Casino the gambling licence was transferred to the Casino of Sanremo. Carlo Noceti was elected mayor and held the office from 1923 to 1926. In that period the new Via Dante was extended as far as Piazza Paccini, under the direction of the podesta Santino Durante, elected in 1927; in parallel a new Anglican church was built in an elevated position with respect to the railway line, since the previous church had been incorporated into the land owned by the Ferrovie dello Stato, and it still exists. In 1929, with the arrival of the prefectural commissioner Novaro, Alassio granted honorary citizenship to the Duce; the same year also saw the erection of a small chapel dedicated to those lost at sea. Two years later, in 1931, a monument to the town's fallen was inaugurated, and in 1934, under the direction of the new podesta Andrea Quartino, the cemetery of Valbona or Barbona was opened. In 1935 the reconstruction of the Molo began, which was subsequently destroyed by the retreating Nazis and rebuilt in 1952. In 1936 the population of Alassio exceeded 8,000 inhabitants for the first time. Two years later, in 1938, the construction of an overpass began in order to eliminate the level crossing situated to the east of the town, a modification definitively implemented only after the war. In 1940, following the demolition of the ancient Church of San Vincenzo situated in the present Piazza Partigiani, a new parish was built to the west of the town, keeping the same name. (October 2026).