Every design for Imperia

Are you from Oneglia or from Porto Maurizio? Ask in Imperia and almost everyone has an answer, because the city was created in the twenties by joining the two rival towns and nine villages around them, and it was named after the Impero stream that runs between them so that neither side had to give up its name.

Imperia lies on the Riviera di Ponente in Liguria, capital of its own province, with short valleys running down to the sea and terraces of olive trees held up by dry-stone walls. Oneglia spreads over the flat ground east of the stream, where the olive oil and pasta works stood; Porto Maurizio climbs a headland to the west, all alleys and steep lanes. The ridge behind the town keeps off the cold north winds, which is why the climate is so mild and why flowers and olives have long been the living here. The admiral Andrea Doria was born in Oneglia.

For anyone who grew up crossing from one side of the Impero to the other, past the Museo navale or up towards Villa Grock, the map shows both halves of the place at once.