Start from Piazza Stalla, where the via Aurelia meets Via Milano (note the seafront “Torrione”). After the railway underpass (regione Ciazze) climb the steep flight of steps on the right, leading to the road for Solva and S. Croce. Crosing a cart track, the mule track initially climbs steeply in steps, the incline then becoming gentler as it skirts boundary walls of gardens.
A paved section with hairpin bends leads to the square in front of Solva parish church. Medieval in origin, the church has undergone alteration over the ages, but still has frescoes from the 15th century. To the left of the Church a paved road (Via Fugassa) runs through the lower part of the hamlet of Solva to the asphalt road.
The route continues along the cart track on the left to a cluster of houses at Solva Alta, where, becoming paved road again, it runs past the restaurant La vigna and some houses. Reverting to cobblestones, it proceeds through olive groves and terraces. Still climbing, the route crosses an asphalt road and proceeds between terraces to Regione Cavia. Here it coincides for around 220 metres with the Cavia-Vegliasco cart track. At a fork in the road, preceded by a water drainage grate across the road, the route continues on up to the right. Leaving the asphalt road before the last house, on the left you find a path between wide terraces. The climb presents a generally medium-gentle incline and leads, at the end of the route, to a “saddle” or ridge, characterised by masts, with Mount Bignone (520m. a.s.l.) to the right and Castellaro to the left. The saddle is an important crossroads: a path on the right leads to the summit of Bignone (a short, demanding hike), another on the left, initially gentle, leads to Vegliasco and the Madonna della Guardia. You can descend the opposite side to the Hamlet of S. Fedele or reach Punta S. Martino in Albenga.
View Itinerary: Alassio - Monte Bignone in a larger map
