Practical information for visiting Alassio

Alassio is better connected than its size suggests, and the reason is the railway. The Genoa-Ventimiglia line puts the town on a main international corridor: the comune records that the principal services from Milan, Genoa, Turin and France stop at its station and that most trains on those routes do, including long-distance Eurocity and Intercity. From the platform a traveller can reach Genoa and Milan in one direction and Monte Carlo and Nice in the other without changing. The station is in the centre of the town, a short walk from the shopping streets and the beach.

Two airports are within an hour and a quarter. Genoa Cristoforo Colombo at 95 km and about 70 minutes, and Nice Cote d'Azur at roughly 115 km and 75 minutes — both served by the principal airlines with direct flights from a great many Italian and European cities. Villanova d'Albenga Riviera Airport, 13 minutes away, handles private flights.

The coast bus is frequent and can be free. TPL line 40 links every coastal locality from Andora to Finale Ligure with runs every 30 minutes, day and evening — the same service that connects the Finalese towns. Guests who ask at check-in can get the TPL Tourist Card Bus: a free digital card, activated by scanning a QR code into the La mia Liguria app, giving seven days of free travel on public buses across the whole province of Savona.

Information is unusually well distributed. The IAT tourist office at Via Mazzini 68 — near the station, two minutes from the Muretto — is open all year with specialised multilingual staff, carries maps and leaflets for the town, the province and the region, and can take bookings for local activities. Beyond it the comune runs the "IAT diffusi": more than 20 information points in shops and businesses through the centre, each able to give first-level information, a map or the week's events.

Internet. The civic library "Renzo Deaglio" on piazza Airaldi e Durante offers free wi-fi and a multimedia room. Nothing read for this page publishes a town-wide public wi-fi scheme or mobile-coverage data, so neither is asserted.

One flat absence. There is no currency exchange office in Alassio; the comune's own advice is to ask at your hotel reception.

Nothing read for this page records a crime problem in Alassio, and nothing here invents one. What the comune does publish are rules and hazards, and those are worth knowing precisely.

The municipal police are the number for anything local. The polizia municipale on 0182 645555 is the published contact for the town's ZTL zones — which exist, but for which no map or timetable is published — and the office that handles lost property. Enquire there if a personal item goes missing.

Dogs on the beach are a fineable matter, not a courtesy. From 1 May to 30 September it is forbidden to take dogs on to the sands, including during the night hours. The alternatives are the dog-friendly private beach clubs and the fenced exercise area in the Parco di Villa Fiske, in the hills on Via Costa Lupara.

The gardens refuse late arrivals outright. At the Giardini di Villa della Pergola the visit begins at the exact time on the ticket; entry is allowed from ten minutes before and refused to anyone arriving more than ten minutes after the start. No refunds and no changes of time are admitted. Rucksacks and bulky bags are not allowed in and go to a paid cloakroom; pets of any size are refused; closed, comfortable shoes are required for the terraced paths.

Do not plan on landing on the island. The isola Gallinara is not visitable. Every boat excursion from the Porto Turistico L. Ferrari circumnavigates it without being able to gain access. It is a regional nature reserve with a major seabird colony, and its cliffs are sheer.

Weather warnings come through the comune. Alassio's municipal site carries the Protezione Civile hydrogeological and storm alerts for the territory, which in autumn are issued regularly for this stretch of coast. Check them before walking the hill paths in heavy rain.

Parking is the commonest way to get stung. Blue-line spaces are paid at €1.80 an hour with charged hours that vary by season and zone, and disc-time zones limit how long you may stay in some free spaces. Read the sign at the bay.

There are three pharmacies in Alassio and the comune publishes all three with their numbers. Farmacia Inglese, Corso Dante 344, 0182 640128; Farmacia Angloamericana, Via Vittorio Veneto 3, 0182 640606; and Farmacia S. Ambrogio, Piazza Airaldi e Durante 8, 0182 645164. The first two names are the English colony still legible on a shop front. No duty rota is published anywhere read for this page, so ring ahead or ask at your accommodation.

The town's original selling point was its air. Thanks to the mild climate — a belt of hills holding off the north wind, temperatures that rarely drop below zero, sun on most winter days — Alassio established itself already in the nineteenth century as a renowned curative and thermal station, and the salubrity of the air is given as a reason for its popularity as a destination for health. That is a historical claim about why visitors came, not a medical one.

Thalassotherapy is still practised here, formally. Wave Walking — a walk taken with the body partially submerged in the sea — was introduced from France and took hold at Alassio from 2018, and the town has become a reference point for the discipline in Italy, with its own Alassio Wave Walking Cup. Lessons are among the activities the comune lists, from €15.

Sun and ground, for the obvious reasons. The beach is low, open and south-facing with a very slight gradient, and the hill paths are old mule tracks. The gardens' own advice applies more widely: closed, comfortable shoes for naturalistic routes, and sun protection and/or an umbrella.

Accessibility, stated honestly. The Giardini di Villa della Pergola describe themselves as partially accessible to people with reduced mobility: they are historic gardens with a terraced conformation, stairs and ramps, and the operator advises electrically powered mobility devices where necessary and contact in advance for particular needs. For accessible hotels the comune directs enquiries to the IAT office at Via Mazzini 68 rather than publishing a list. Disabled drivers unable to find a reserved bay may park free on blue lines with a valid CUDE.

And the facilities a visitor actually needs. Public toilets are in Piazza Paccini, Piazza Stalla, Passeggiata Ciccione, at the station on platform 1 and at the Porto L. Ferrari. The municipal swimming pool, the Palalassio L. Ravizza and the Circolo Nautico Al Mare are the public sports facilities.

The number is 112. It is the European emergency number, free of charge everywhere in the EU, dialled from fixed or mobile telephones, and it reaches any emergency service — ambulance, fire service or police. Nothing read for this page publishes a local emergency number for Alassio, so 112 is the one to use.

For anything municipal, the polizia municipale. 0182 645555 is the number the comune publishes for its ZTL zones and for lost property. It is not an emergency line.

Pharmacies, in an order worth remembering. Farmacia Inglese, Corso Dante 344, 0182 640128; Farmacia Angloamericana, Via Vittorio Veneto 3, 0182 640606; Farmacia S. Ambrogio, Piazza Airaldi e Durante 8, 0182 645164. No duty rota for them is published.

The tourist office is the human fallback. The IAT at Via Mazzini 68 — near the station, two minutes from the Muretto — is open all year with multilingual staff, and the comune also runs more than 20 "IAT diffusi" information points in businesses through the centre. Its published number is 0182 647027.

Weather alerts. The comune publishes Protezione Civile hydrogeological and storm warnings for its territory on its own municipal site, which is where to look before going up into the hills in bad weather.

On the water. Boat excursions, diving and sailing all operate out of the Porto Turistico L. Ferrari, which is also where the largest free beach begins. The Cappelletta on the rocky spur beside the marina is itself a votive memorial of 1929 to those lost at sea — a reminder of what this coast was before it was a holiday.

And two things Alassio does not have. There is no currency exchange office, and there are no camper areas or campsites in the comune. Both are published absences, not oversights.