Altitude: 336 m a.s.l.
Area: 10 sq km
Distance from Imperia: 17 km
Inhabitants: in 1881: 1048 - in 2017: 459
Patron Saint Day: August 10th - Saints Lorenzo and Antonio
Information: Municipality phone 0183 41025
The real toponym of the place is "Faraldi" which occurs in the XIII century as a family name (Ricobonus de Faraudis); it is commonly considered to be of Germanic origin, deriving from fara-wald, which could not, however, date back beyond the High Middle Ages or, at the most, the Lower Empire and is perhaps also connected to the Longobard name Faroald, attested in Farfa in the VIII century, while the toponym "Villa" next to it is probably due to a pre-existing Roman patronal settlement.
Take on the left the detour that goes down to Molini.
After the large iron wheel of a first oil mill on the right, take the dirt road to the left before the bridge and after a hundred meters park your car; in front of you there is perhaps the last water mill, intact in all its handcrafted structures, with the archaic wooden rung-gears of medieval tradition. The driving force is provided by the nearby stream Steria, crossed a little further upstream by a Romanesque bridge with a single arch partly rebuilt in the Middle Ages, which preserves at its base the typical square stones of Roman times.
After getting your supply of extra virgin olive oil, leave this medieval island and, once back to the Provincial Road, take the detour that leads to Riva Faraldi a little further on to the left where, past the oratory of San Rocco at the beginning of the village, at the junction you can take the left thus reaching the large churchyard of the Baroque church of the Transfiguration of Christ near whose façade there is a small fountain flanked by two stone columns, the only ones remaining of the original building.
The interior, with a single nave, preserves in the last altar on the right the Baroque wooden group of the Transfiguration; on the floor the marble plaque of 1768 indicates the trap door of the "Sepulcher of the Ortolani".
Resuming the car continue on the Provincial Road reaching the village of Deglio from which you can go up to reach the church of San Bernardo with a sundial on the wall and a low slit in the bell tower.
Inside, the sixteenth-century polyptych of San Bernardo who keeps chained to his feet an ape-like little devil is preserved on the right of the high altar, under which is the inscription "Cristoforo Pancalino", the name of the person who commissioned the painting, by Giulio De Rossi (1577-78).
After crossing the churchyard, you can return to the car and then continue on the right past the church to reach the village of Villa Faraldi in a few kilometers of good dirt road in the woods.
The history of Villa Faraldi coincides with that of Cervo: it was formerly a possession of the Municipality of Albenga, then of the Marquises of Clavesana and finally of Genoa.
Visit of the town
After parking the car at the beginning of the village, enter through the concrete ramp that goes up in front of the municipal building, then down to the right the few steps that lead you in front of the remains of the stone arch of the original access gate to the village.
From there take a left and after passing under the small loggia go up to the widening on the left side of the church.
On the left, on Via Piemonte 11 opens a stone portal with an ogival arch; ask for the keys on site to visit the Renaissance church of San Lorenzo Martire, usually closed.
The building, rebuilt in 1865, preserves on its façade a small sixteenth-century plaque, and a Roman tombstone from the 1st century AD found in the nearby countryside, which perpetuates the sorrow of Donna Licinia for the premature death of her son Agrippa, which bears the oldest Roman inscription found in Liguria and refers to the first phase of Romanization of the Ligurian west.
Leaving the church take the right passing under the seventeenth-century bell tower and after the arch go left; when you reach the vault surmounted by the small aedicule with a decapitated statue of the Virgin, continue to the left and then again to the left, going out of the built-up area and returning immediately afterwards under the slab of Via Verdi.
After the vault go right along the little street between houses flanked by their respective family vegetable gardens that ends out of town with a panoramic view of Tovo and the valley; from there return to the village following the brick paving.
A few meters after the apse of the church rises on the right a fifteenth-century house with almost dry walls in squared stone blocks and a beautiful stone portal with an ogival arch, now walled up; from there following the brick flooring you can return to the car.
Continuing towards the mountain you’ll find the hamlet of Tovetto after a kilometer; at the curve, the short ramp on the right leads to the recently restored oratory of San Sebastiano and San Rocco, with a fountain on the façade.
On the external right wall, less than two meters from the ground, there is a sundial. Inside, above the high altar is the polyptych altarpiece on wooden board "Martirio di San Sebastiano".
The unknown author has unwisely dressed the archers according to the fashion of his time and today the anachronistic sixteenth-century clothes help us to date the panel.
Continuing, you’ll reach the village of Tovo after a kilometer where you can park in the churchyard of the Baroque church of Sant'Antonio Abate.
Inside, two baptismal fonts are preserved on the right: the stone octagonal one on a column is of the 13th century, the other one in marble is of a few centuries later.
The niche on the left houses the crude wooden group of San Isidoro of Seville, protector of farmers, with the figure of the saint above a plowman with oxen yoked to a tool tied "as a nail"; opposite is the anonymous painting on wood of the Virgin surrounded by the fifteen tondoes with the Mysteries of the Rosary.
Behind the high altar there is the sixteenth-century polyptych by Raffaele and Giulio De Rossi (1560-62) with the Virgin between Sant’Antonio Abate on the left and San Giovanni Evangelista on the right; from the chalice which the latter holds in his hand appears the black snake that symbolizes the poison drunk by the saint, tradition says, without any damage.
On the floor in front of the altar is the marble plaque of 1687 with the inscription "Sepulchrum pro sacerdotibus" which gives access to the crypt where the local clergy was buried. The para-altar is of a high quality.
One hundred meters to the right of the church is the oratory of Santa Caterina, now abandoned: the cross vault to the right of the building is supported by semi-columns.
From Tovetto take on the right at the fork the road that descends to Chiappa (municipality of San Bartolomeo al Mare) where in the small widening on the right at the beginning of the town is preserved the Roman milestone of Via Julia Augusta, there transferred and fixed on a round concrete base protected by a roof.
From Chiappa towards Tovo a small path to the right after the cross takes you in a 10-minute walk to Bustagnolo, the hamlet where remain testimonies of the old houses used as a place to stay during the hay harvesting.
From Chiappa the road leading to Rocca branches off to the left, with the chapel of Santa Lucia, from which you can continue on foot to Colle Mea, with a panoramic view on the sea; continuing instead along the Provincial Road you’ll descend to Via Aurelia.