Badalucco With Kids: Liguria’s Painted Village, Olive Mills and an Agriturismo Spa

There is a village twenty minutes inland from the Ligurian coast where the walls are painted. Not decorated for visitors. Painted since 1993, by Italian and international artists invited to work on medieval stone, so the alleys read like an open air gallery you happen to be walking your kids through.

It is called Badalucco, it sits in the Valle Argentina in Liguria, and most people drive straight past the turning on their way to the coast.

We went inland instead. Here is what Badalucco is actually like with children, where we stayed, what there is to do, and why this valley is worth the detour.

Where is Badalucco?

Badalucco is a medieval village in the middle of the Valle Argentina, in the province of Imperia, on the Italian Riviera. The coast at Arma di Taggia is about 13 km down the valley, which is the twenty minute drive. Sanremo is about 20 km away, closer to half an hour once you are on the coast road. The nearest airport is Nice, roughly 80 km by road.

That combination is the whole point. You land at a major international airport, drive a little over an hour, and end up somewhere that feels nothing like the airport you left.

Why we went inland instead of staying on the coast

The Ligurian coast in summer is busy, hot and expensive. Twenty minutes inland the temperature drops, the crowds disappear and the river runs right past the village.

With small children, the inland villages also solve a problem the coast does not. Most of the old centre is a web of stone alleys too narrow for a car to get into, so our six year old could walk ahead of us instead of being held by the wrist. The through road and the bridges do carry traffic, so it is not car free everywhere, but the part you actually wander is.

Things to do in Badalucco with kids

Walk the painted village

Badalucco is known as the painted village. Murals and ceramic works sit on the medieval walls throughout the old centre, which turns a walk into a hunt. Our six year old found it much easier to keep going when every corner had something new on it.

The river and the two bridges

The Argentina runs a few steps from the village, and two old stone bridges close it at either end. The Santa Lucia bridge was begun in 1551 and finished in 1606 on Roman foundations, and it carries a small chapel to Santa Lucia on its first pier. The Madonna degli Angeli bridge dates from around 1600 and shuts the village at the north end. The river is the thing children remember.

The church and the bell tower

The church of Santa Maria Assunta and San Giorgio was built between 1683 and 1691, and its bell tower is visible from every part of the village, which makes it the thing you orient yourself by when the alleys stop making sense.

Walk up into the hills

Trails on the Ligurian hiking network lead from the valley up toward Monte Carmo and the Madonna della Neve sanctuary. You do not have to do the whole thing. Walking out of the village and turning around when small legs have had enough is a perfectly good morning.

Time it with a festival

The Festival dello Stoccafisso, the stockfish festival, runs on the third weekend of September. The fifty fourth edition was held on 19 and 20 September 2026. At Easter, after Mass, the village plays lo scotezzo in the square: everyone brings a hard boiled egg and knocks it against someone else’s, and whoever’s egg survives takes the other one and carries on. Both are the kind of thing where your children end up in the middle of a village event rather than watching one.

The olive oil family that made this valley

Badalucco’s real story is olive oil, and one family has been making it here since 1900.

Olio ROI was founded by a great grandfather called Giuseppe, known locally as Pepin u Roi, who built the first mill out of the valley’s own wood and stone. The family name is Boeri. Roi was the nickname, and it became the brand. They are now on their fifth generation.

Their olive groves cover 42 hectares, climbing the valley between 60 and 500 metres above sea level, on terraces first cut by Benedictine monks who settled in the Argentina valley between the late seventh and early eighth centuries. The olive is the Taggiasca, small and dark, from a tree that can reach 15 metres and go on producing fruit for more than 600 years.

That last fact is the one I keep repeating to people. A tree planted here can still be feeding a family four centuries after whoever planted it is gone.

You can visit. There is a shop inside the mill, a museum telling the family’s own history, an educational farm, and Il Bistrot dell’Ulivo for tastings and events.

We are working with Olio ROI, and we stayed on their estate as their guests.

Their own online shop ships within Italy only, and their site asks you to email [email protected] for international orders. If you are reading this from the US, their oil is also listed on Amazon, including the monocultivar Taggiasca, the DOP Riviera Ligure, the Mosto and the Taggiasca olives in brine. They also make a gin, Taggiasco Extravirgin, from Taggiasca olives and juniper.

Where to stay in Badalucco

We stayed at Agriturismo l’Adagio, which is the family’s old Roi mill, built at the start of the last century and since restored. It sits just outside the old centre.

There are four rooms, five themed suites and two apartments, so it works for a couple, for a family, or for a group travelling together. There is a spa with a hammam, a sauna and a jacuzzi that looks straight out over the valley, plus an unheated outdoor pool in the warmer months, and the massages and body treatments use the estate’s own olive oil.

One thing to know before you book it as a family: the spa is strictly 16 and over. Do it anyway. My husband and I took turns, one of us in the spa and one of us with the girls, and sitting in that jacuzzi looking out over the valley was one of the best hours of the whole trip.

What makes it worth choosing over a hotel on the coast is that you are sleeping inside the thing the village is about. The mill, the groves and the oil are not an excursion you book. They are where you are staying.

Our stay at Agriturismo L’Adagio: what we loved

We stayed in September, and L’Adagio is the reason I tell everyone to go inland. It is a family-run agriturismo in the restored family mill, and it offers so much:

• A pool with a view. You can swim and look straight out over the town.
• A spa. A hammam, a sauna, and treatments you can book. The spa is adults only, so if you have kids, take turns.
• Room to live. The suites are comfortable enough to do anything you want, with a little mini kitchen.
• Breakfast at your door. Locally baked goods are dropped at your door every morning, and it is delicious.
• Aperitivo on the terrace. A drink or a glass of wine overlooking the town is the best way to end the day.
• Walkable. Everything you need is within walking distance, including a great family-friendly pizzeria right next door.
• The people. The staff were incredible, and the owner, Paolo’s mother, is just the sweetest.

Book it here: Agriturismo L’Adagio, Badalucco (affiliate link: if you book through it I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you).

The old mill, the olive groves and a picnic

You can visit the family’s old mill, which is really interesting for kids: they can see how olives were pressed long before machines did the work. Then hike up to the Olio ROI olive groves to see how the olives are grown and harvested. The hike is not long, but it is steep going uphill, and it is so pretty. At the top we had a picnic with Olio ROI products, and it was one of the best moments of our trip.

The modern mill and shop

Down in the town, the Olio ROI modern mill has a shop selling their oils and olives alongside products from all over the region: wine, oils infused with all kinds of flavours, every type of olive, soaps and more. Everything we tried was delicious, and it is the perfect place to buy gifts to take home.

Taggiasco gin: the gin made from olives

And then there is the gin. Paolo, from the Olio ROI family, makes Taggiasco gin, described as the first Italian gin made from Taggiasca olives. Expect juniper, spice and a light briny note from the olive. It was the star of the Olio ROI aperitivo during our Roots & Future residency in Ormea, where families wanted to take bottles home. Follow @olioroi for their products and events.

Day trip: Triora, the witch village

From Badalucco you can drive further up the Valle Argentina to Triora, known for its witch trials between 1587 and 1589, with a museum of ethnography and witchcraft. It makes a fascinating day trip with kids.

Badalucco to Ormea

Badalucco is about an hour and a half from Ormea on a mountain road, so it pairs perfectly with a stay in the Val Tanaro. Ormea is the 1,000-year-old Piedmont village where we bring families to live for ten days on our Roots & Future residency. See also Liguria With Kids Beyond Cinque Terre.

What to eat in Badalucco

Two things carry the local table.

Stockfish. The village dish is stoccafissu au Baücogna, and it is serious enough here to have its own September festival.

The beans. The fagioli di Badalucco are a Slow Food presidium, shared with the nearby villages of Conio and Pigna, and have been since 2004. The bean’s ancestors arrived in Liguria in the seventeenth century from Spain, by way of Provence. Badalucco’s white bean is small, oval and thin skinned, and the local dish built on it is friscioi, bean fritters. Over in Conio they put the same bean in zemin, a soup. For a child who is suspicious of anything green, a fritter in a mountain village is an easy win.

Make the pasta when you get home

Half of what our children remember from Italy is the food they helped make. Marcato has been making pasta machines since 1930, when Otello Marcato built the first one in a workshop behind his house, and the company has produced them at its factory in Campodarsego, near Padua, ever since it opened there a few years later. The Atlas 150 is the classic one. It rolls sheets up to 150 mm wide, just under six inches, it is made and assembled in Italy, and it comes with a cutter for fettuccine and tagliolini.

Marcato is providing the pasta machines for our family residency in Ormea.

Pair Badalucco with the rest of the north

Badalucco works best as part of a slower route rather than a single stop.

Bogliasco, about 11 km southeast of Genoa on the Golfo Paradiso, is a pastel fishing village with a small harbour and a bridge everyone calls the Roman bridge, though what stands there now is thirteenth century and was reworked in the sixteen hundreds. The village has its own station and the train from Genova Brignole takes under twenty minutes. One practical warning from us: the rocky cove at Pontetto looks beautiful in photos, but you reach it by an underpass under the tracks and a steep set of steps, there are no facilities at all, and the shore is uneven enough that you want shoes in the water. With small children, stay in the main bay by the bridge.

Triora, about 18 km up the Valle Argentina from Badalucco, is the detour we made on the way to Ormea and it was worth every minute of it. It is the village that put dozens of local women on trial for witchcraft between 1587 and 1589, and it has never stopped being known for it. There is an ethnographic and witchcraft museum in the old centre, the lanes are dark and stacked and genuinely atmospheric, and it is on the list of the Borghi più belli d’Italia. Our girls loved it. Go in the afternoon and eat before you climb, because the streets are steep.

Ormea, in Piedmont, is about 55 km from Badalucco, and it took us about an hour and a half, because it is mountain road nearly the whole way and you will not want to rush it. It is a 1,000 year old village in the Val Tanaro, and it is where we run our family residency. Same instinct as Badalucco, different valley, and the mountains instead of the sea.

Badalucco with kids: frequently asked questions

Is Badalucco worth visiting with children?

Yes, if you want a village rather than a resort. The painted alleys, the river and the narrow car free lanes make it easy with small children, and it is quiet in a way the coast is not.

How far is Badalucco from Sanremo?

About 20 km. Allow half an hour, because the last stretch is the coast road.

What is the nearest airport to Badalucco?

Nice, roughly 80 km by road, a little over an hour’s drive.

What is Badalucco known for?

Three things: the murals that give it the name the painted village, Taggiasca olive oil, and stockfish, which has its own festival every September.

Can you swim in Badalucco?

The Argentina runs beside the village and slows into deep clear pools, and in summer local families spend whole afternoons at them. It is a mountain river, not a beach: no lifeguard, no facilities, and the level changes with the weather, so judge it on the day. For the sea, the coast at Arma di Taggia is about fifteen minutes down the valley.

Where should we stay in Badalucco?

We stayed at Agriturismo l’Adagio, the restored Roi family olive mill, which has four rooms, five suites and two apartments, plus a spa and a summer pool. Note the spa is strictly 16 and over, so plan to take turns.

Watch it for yourself: our October residency recap reel and the pasta class reel. Follow @bravefamilyroots for the full story, day by day.

Keep reading

• Liguria With Kids Beyond Cinque Terre
• Piedmont With Kids
• Staying in a Medieval Castle Near Florence With Kids

Go inland

The coast is where everyone goes. Twenty minutes up the valley there is a village covered in paintings, a river, olive terraces that monks cut into these hills thirteen hundred years ago, and enough space for your children to run ahead of you.

That is the trade we keep making, and so far we have not regretted it once.

Xoxo, Marae: your travel mom bestie

More slow travel in northern Italy: off the beaten path towns in Italy with kids and where to stay in Ormea.