Dolceacqua: Italy’s Secret Underground Village Hidden in the Hills of the Italian Riviera

The Italian Riviera stretches like a ribbon along the Ligurian coast, a curve of mountains and sea running between the French border and Tuscany. Most visitors chase the well-known names, Portofino, Sanremo, Cinque Terre, but tucked away in the hills lies a far more intriguing story: Italy’s secret underground village, Dolceacqua.

View over Dolceacqua from the Doria Castle, the iconic bow bridge crossing the Nervia River, surrounded by the terraced hills of the Italian Riviera

Here, the Riviera’s glamour fades into history. Just a few miles inland from the Mediterranean, the terraced slopes of the Val Nervia shelter a maze of medieval tunnels, arched bridges, and centuries-old stone houses stacked above shadowy passageways. This hidden world once thrived on the salt trade that linked Genoa to the Alps, and even today it feels untouched by time, a living reminder that some of Italy’s most extraordinary treasures lie beyond the coast.

Finding Dolceacqua - Italy’s Secret Underground Village Hidden in the Hills of the Italian Riviera

I was travelling with a couple of friends, climbing the limestone cliffs around Finale Ligure on the coast. Between sessions, we decided to trade carabiners for curiosity and head inland for a day. The journey alone felt like a film reel of the Ligurian hinterland, hairpin turns through silver-leafed olive groves, the scent of wild herbs drifting through open windows, and the occasional view of stone bell towers rising above the valleys.

When the road finally dipped into the Val Nervia, the medieval bridge of Dolceacqua appeared like a scene from a fairy tale: a single elegant arch reflected perfectly in the calm river below, the ruins of a castle watching from the cliffs above.

Parking was easy, a euro or two an hour, and the main car park sits only a five-minute stroll from the bridge and village square. The short walk gives you time to take in the setting: rows of pastel houses lining the riverbank, laundry fluttering from balconies, the scent of espresso and focaccia wafting across the water. It’s peaceful now, but this valley once pulsed with trade, ambition, and the politics of salt.

A Valley Shaped by Salt

Long before it became an artist’s muse, Dolceacqua was a strategic stop on the salt road that linked the Mediterranean to Piedmont and the interior of Europe. Salt was the gold of the Middle Ages, essential for preserving food, valuable for trade, and jealously taxed by whoever controlled its routes.

Merchants travelling inland from the Ligurian coast had to pass through the Val Nervia, and the powerful Doria family of Genoa made sure they paid for the privilege. The village’s location, protected by hills, watered by the river, and close enough to the sea for trade, made it the perfect toll point. Prosperity followed: mills, merchants’ houses, churches, and eventually the imposing fortress that still crowns the ridge.

Exploring the Doria Castle in Dolceacqua, a 12th-century fortress built by the powerful Genoese Doria family to control the salt routes through Italy’s secret underground village

But prosperity built on taxes and monopolies is fragile. As new coastal routes opened and Genoa’s dominance waned, the flow of salt and wealth slowed. Dolceacqua receded from the maps of merchants and soldiers and settled into the quieter rhythm that still defines it today.

Crossing the Bowed Bridge

We began our exploration at the Ponte Vecchio, the iconic bow-shaped bridge that arches gracefully across the Nervia. Built in the 15th century to replace an earlier two-arched structure destroyed by floods, it’s a marvel of medieval engineering, a single 33-metre span of local stone, perfectly balanced without modern mortar.

The Ponte Vecchio of Dolceacqua, a 15th-century stone bridge that inspired Claude Monet’s painting of “Italy’s secret underground village

It survived wars, earthquakes, and centuries of footsteps, and it still feels sturdy enough for a few more hundred years. In 1884, Claude Monet visited and painted it, captivated by the way the light curved with the stone and water. He later wrote that the bridge was “a jewel of light and harmony.” His impressionist canvas made Dolceacqua briefly famous among artists, though it would slip quietly back into anonymity soon after.

Crossing the Ponte Vecchio into Terra Vecchia, the old quarter of Dolceacqua, Italy’s secret underground village, watched over by the ruins of the 12th-century Doria Castle.

Standing on that bridge today, it’s easy to see what Monet saw. The curve is elegant, the reflection flawless, and beyond it rises a jumble of medieval buildings stacked like bricks of honeycomb. On one side lies the newer district, cafes, bakeries, and a few souvenir shops. On the far side, through a stone archway, waits the real treasure: Terra Vecchia, the old town.

Into Terra Vecchia: The Living Labyrinth

Crossing the bridge feels like crossing centuries. Terra Vecchia, “the old land”, is the heart of Dolceacqua, a network of subterranean alleys, vaulted walkways, and staircases that twist beneath houses piled high against the hillside. Some passages are so narrow you can stretch an arm to each wall; others open suddenly into tiny courtyards drenched in sunlight.

Exploring the subterranean alleys of Terra Vecchia, the heart of Dolceacqua, Italy’s secret underground village, where medieval stone tunnels wind beneath centuries-old homes.

These underground streets weren’t built for romance or mystery. They were practical architecture in a difficult landscape. The tunnels offered shade from the Ligurian heat, protection from storms and raids, and space to expand vertically when horizontal land was scarce. Many of the houses above them date back to the 13th and 14th centuries, their rough stone still cool to the touch.

Walking through the narrow stone tunnels of Terra Vecchia in Dolceacqua, the hidden passages that give Italy’s secret underground village its timeless, otherworldly charm.

As we wandered deeper, the village seemed to swallow sound. Footsteps echoed, voices softened, the air smelled faintly of earth and baking bread. Every turn revealed something, a fresco fragment on a doorway, a cat napping on a windowsill, a grandmother chatting from a balcony three stories up. It felt lived-in, not staged, a medieval maze that people still call home.

A hand-painted door in Terra Vecchia, Dolceacqua, artwork depicting an elderly woman knitting by the fire, a tribute to daily life in Italy’s secret underground village.

Climbing Toward the Castle

Eventually, the alleys tilted upward, winding through a series of steep steps until we emerged into sunlight at the top of the hill. Here stand the remains of the Castello dei Doria, built in the 12th century when the Doria family extended their Genoese power inland. From this vantage point, they could control the entire valley and guard the salt caravans that enriched their coffers.

Exploring the ruins of Doria Castle above Dolceacqua, a fortress that once guarded the valley and today offers panoramic views over Italy’s secret underground village and the Ligurian hills.

The castle evolved over centuries, expanded in the 14th and 15th centuries, battered by wars with neighbouring nobles, and then modernised for artillery in later centuries. In 1744, it was bombarded by the French during the War of the Austrian Succession and fell into ruin. What remains today is a haunting silhouette: crumbling towers, arched windows open to the sky, and a sweeping view that stretches from the mountains to the Mediterranean.

Standing inside the ruins of Doria Castle in Dolceacqua, once a stronghold of the Doria family, now a peaceful lookout over Italy’s secret underground village and the Nervia Valley.

The climb is worth every step. Up here, with the river glinting below and the rooftops stacked like terracotta scales, it’s easy to imagine banners fluttering and guards keeping watch over the trade routes.

A Conversation About Salt and Survival

Near the castle gate, we met a local, the sort of encounter that turns a visit into a memory. With the castle towering over us, she told me how salt shaped everything here: the wealth, the wars, even the decline.

Chatting with a local outside Doria Castle in Dolceacqua, learning how salt shaped the rise and fall of Italy’s secret underground village.

She described how the Doria taxed every grain that crossed their land and how control of salt routes meant control of power. When the routes shifted toward Savona and Nice, the money vanished, and with it the ability to maintain the castle and fortifications. Families moved away, leaving behind the labyrinth of stone that still winds beneath their descendants’ homes.

Listening to her, it struck me how many European towns rose and fell with the tides of trade, yet Dolceacqua, somehow, endured. Perhaps because its beauty, like the bridge itself, is built on balance.

Wine, Food, and the Slow Afternoon

Back in the village square, life returned to the present. We found a small café under the arches, ordered plates of local snacks, thin slices of focaccia, olives from nearby groves, a drizzle of golden olive oil, and another glass of wine.

Enjoying a glass of local Rossese wine in Dolceacqua after exploring Italy’s secret underground village, the perfect way to end a day of history, views, and discovery.

The wine tasted of the valley: light, dry, touched with spice and sunlight. Around us, locals chatted, children played by the fountain, and an accordion drifted from a nearby bar. The rhythm of Dolceacqua is slow and deliberate, like a long exhale after the coastal bustle.

As the afternoon light slid across the bridge, the stones warmed to gold. I walked back one last time to the riverbank to take in the view Monet immortalised. The reflections were perfect, the castle shadow stretching across the water. For a moment it felt as though the centuries had folded together: the painter’s brush, the salt merchants’ carts, the laughter from the square.

Why Dolceacqua Stays With You

Places like this leave more than photographs. Dolceacqua lingers in the mind because it feels complete, not polished for tourists, not frozen in time, but quietly alive. The river still flows beneath the same bridge that carried salt merchants and inspired Monet. Families still hang laundry across the same stone arches that once echoed with soldiers’ boots.

Travelling here reminded me why I started Travelling Mac in the first place, to find corners of the world where history isn’t a museum piece but part of daily life.

When we finally drove back toward the coast, the castle disappeared behind a curve of olive trees, and the valley folded back into shadow. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Dolceacqua doesn’t want to be famous; it wants to be found, quietly, by travellers who take the time to look beyond the shoreline.

To see the video of the adventure in Dolceacqua, Italy’s Secret Underground Village Hidden in the Hills of the Italian Riviera, head over to my YouTube channel, where the video awaits in HD. Let me know what you thought

Find the video of the adventure on my Youtube channel. Click the image to watch