Altitude: 331 m a.s.l.
Area: 8 sq km
Distance from Imperia: 14 km
Inhabitants: in 1881: 535 - in 2017: 729
Patron Saint Day: July 20th - Santa Margherita
Information: Municipality phone 0183 43048
As the other villages of the area, Diano Arentino was founded in the early Middle Ages as a fief of the Marquis of Clavesana, and later merged into the "Communitas Diani".
It seems that "Arentino" is an adjective ending in “-ino” connectable with the Latin term “adhaerentem”, from which derives the dialectal phrase "a rente" which means "near, close".
Visit of the town
Leave the car on the open space in front of the portico of the church of Santa Margherita, which obtained the right to give baptism already in 1585; the church was entirely rebuilt in the seventeenth century when the structure was turned upside down by reversing the apse with the façade; inside the original stone columns that divide it into three naves were adapted to pillars.
It houses the seventeenth-century polyptych "Virgin on the throne with Saints" by an unknown author, the fifteenth-century bench of the Marquises of Clavesana and an anonymous seventeenth-century "Trinity".
On the Baroque bell tower are two well-preserved sundials of 1868.
Walking up to the right of the church and keeping the right, you can take a short tour of the village; from the descent that takes you back to the car, the path that reaches the disused oratory of Santa Croce, that you see on the opposite knoll, branches off to the left; the building is now in disrepair, an example among many others of how the evolution of times corrodes up to erasing the testimonies of the past.
Returning to the car go back and, at the crossroads, take the left proceeding for three and a half kilometers between the last olive groves that already alternate with the wood until you reach Evigno, where around the year 1000 stood one of the castles of the Clavesanas, of which today no traces remain.
The Baroque church of San Bernardo, which preserves the 16th century polyptych on wooden panel "San Bernardo in trono" by Raffaello and Giulio De Rossi (1552), has a modern sundial above the left side door and, in the small widening that precedes it, the three stone column drums left to remind us of the original construction.
Next to the church stands the rustic little oratory, with a semi-circular stone staircase and a roof over the door frescoed in the lunette with a Crucifixion. Continuing by car, after about three hundred meters of dirt road you’ll reach the panoramic Chapel of Madonna della Neve; if you want to take a walk in less than two hours from there you can reach Pizzo d'Evigno (986 m) with a beautiful view of the Alps and the sea.
Returning by car to the Provincial Road, going down through the woods that give more and more room to the olive trees, take the left at the first fork and the right at the next one reaching Diano Borello after five hundred meters, where you can park in the panoramic widening below the church of San Michele.
The building was erected on a pagan temple in the Romanesque period but was later remodeled, therefore the façade is now Baroque with a large clock on the right, and an ogival arched portal frescoed in the lunette with a "San Michele"; of the original church has remained a monolithic architrave of 1485 carved with a Trigram in a tondo between two rosettes.
The small quadrangular bell tower has a narrow single-light window and hanging arches on the belfry; it is dominated by a sundial in Italic time with the motto: "parte quest'ombra e riede alor s'aggiorna ma l'uom qual ombra fugge e più non torna".
The chunk and the trunk of column lying on the ground at the beginning of the churchyard come from the demolished chapel of San Rocco that stood downstream of the cemetery.
The interior of the church has three naves divided by four stone columns linked by pointed arches; at the entrance there is a carved-stone holy water font and behind the main altar is the "San Michele" polyptych by Antonio Brea of 1516, to the left of which is affixed a sixteenth-century marble cabinet for holy oils.
In the first chapel on the left is preserved the massive monolithic octagonal baptismal font made around the year one thousand; on the sides are two carved marble pillars, surmounted by a stone ball, that were part of the Roman temple on which the original church was built.
To the left of the church is the short ramp that leads to the nearby oratory of the Holy Cross with a portico on pilasters and a black stone portal surmounted by a niche, with the monolithic architrave carved with the figures of the hooded members of the Confraternity who flagellate themselves kneeling down at the sides of the cross.
From Borello go back on the road already traveled to the junction from which you can take the right; after two kilometers pass the bridge and turn left reaching Diano Roncagli, with the Baroque church of Santa Lucia with the cusp bell tower covered with polychrome tiles and a black stone aedicule affixed on the left wall.
You can take a tour of the small village going down the ramp to the left of the church from which, after noticing under the loggia on the left a piece of column of the old building, you can return to the parking lot observing that another piece of column of the old church has ended up affixed in front of number 3.
Descending by car, stop at the bridge and, crossing the opening in the guard rail, go down the stairs that lead to the stream, thus reaching the beautiful Romanesque bridge with two very accentuated asymmetrical arches, which holds in the center, on the pillar with spurs, the small aedicule that preserves a worn marble statuette of the Virgin. Even the aedicule shows the wear and tear of time: the words "Mater misericordiae" are almost illegible.
Resuming the car, instead of retracing the paved bridge, continue to the left and thus enter the territory of Diano Borganzo, passing on the right side of the road the little church of San Giovanni Battista with graceful small columns and stuccoes on the façade; built in 1838 and then abandoned, it belongs today to a private individual who uses it as a warehouse.
Immediately afterwards, the ramp on the left leads to the church of Saints Cosma and Damiano and Presentation of Mary which preserves behind the high altar the great polyptych of 1518 "Madonna of consolation" by Antonio Brea.
On the south side of the bell tower there is a well-preserved sundial with the motto: "Aspice mortali tempus et considera velut umbra praeterit" which invites you to meditate on the inexorable passing of time and on the shadow that moves forward; on the opposite side of the church a much more prosaic plaque invites you not to blaspheme.
Continuing along the Provincial Road after two kilometers you’ll arrive to Diano San Pietro.