Tre Ponti, Sanremo: A Ghost Village Sits in the Hills Above This Beach

Italy | Sanremo | Liguria

In the hills above Tre Ponti, an earthquake struck at 6:21 in the morning on 23 February 1887 and effectively ended the life of an entire medieval village. Bussana, founded around 1050 on a rocky hilltop by one of the Counts of Ventimiglia, had grown over the following eight centuries into a proper town, its church rebuilt and expanded across generations, from Romanesque columns torn down in 1652 to make way for a full Baroque interior. The earthquake brought most of that down in a matter of seconds, and the survivors abandoned the ruins entirely, founding a new village, Bussana Nuova, closer to the sea, with the new town hall’s foundation stone laid just over two years later, in June 1889.

What’s left up on the hill, Bussana Vecchia, sat empty for nearly seventy years until the late 1950s, when international artists began moving into the derelict buildings, carving out studios and living spaces from the ruins. The settlement is still inhabited today, a genuine working artist community with craft shops, small ateliers, and a handful of restaurants, the old church of Saint Giles still standing in its unrestored state, too structurally unsafe to enter but visible from outside, its bell tower having somehow survived the earthquake that brought down most of the rest of the building around it.

Tre Ponti is the largest public beach in the Sanremo area, sitting directly on the Riviera dei Fiori cycling path, the 24-kilometre route running between San Lorenzo al Mare and Ospedaletti.

Getting There: 10 Minutes by Bike From Central Sanremo

I rented a bike in central Sanremo and followed the flat, mostly car-free cycling path east for about ten minutes, with a dedicated ramp leading straight down to the sand from the path itself — genuinely one of the easiest beach approaches I’ve covered anywhere in this series. By car, I drove east along the coastal Corso Cavallotti, following signs for Tre Ponti, with paid parking available along the access road.

The local city bus connecting central Sanremo to Bussana also stops at a designated Tre Ponti coastal stop, a short, flat walk from there down to the sea wall.

The Beach: Fine Sand and Smooth Pebbles, Wide Open, Genuinely Crowded in Season

Tre Ponti mixes fine sand with smooth, flat pebbles, wide and open rather than tucked into a narrow cove the way several other beaches along this coast are. The water stayed shallow for a comfortable distance, well suited to children, and several private beach clubs, called bagni in Italian, run organised sections alongside genuinely large free public stretches.

I’d mention something specific and practical about how the bagni system actually works, since it caught me off guard the first time: many regular visitors reserve and pay for their deckchairs up to a week in advance, which means a beach can look like it has empty loungers available while the attendant genuinely can’t rent them to anyone new, since they’re already booked and paid for by someone arriving later. I’d come early in the morning if a guaranteed spot matters, rather than assuming any visibly empty chair is actually up for grabs.

Showers, changing cabins, and lifeguard towers cover the practical side, and surfboard, paddleboard, and pedal boat rentals are all available given how open this stretch is to the sea compared to some of the more sheltered coves further along the coast.

Tre Ponti, the largest public beach near Sanremo, sits below Bussana Vecchia, a medieval village founded around 1050 and devastated by an earthquake in February 1887, abandoned for nearly seventy years before international artists resettled it from the late 1950s onward into the working community it remains today. The beach itself is fine sand and smooth pebble, wide and open, directly on the Riviera dei Fiori cycling path, with organised bagni sections and large free public stretches. Reserved deckchairs can make the beach look more available than it actually is, so arriving early helps. Ten minutes by bike from central Sanremo.

Cycle the Riviera path from central Sanremo, or drive the Corso Cavallotti and park along the access road. Visit Bussana Vecchia in the hills above if the history interests you — it’s a genuinely strange and worthwhile detour. Arrive early if you want a deckchair without having booked one in advance.