Horticulture and Floriculture
The Riviera dei Fiori.
Where Spring never ends.
At first it was only scattered with a few citrus trees, orchards and olive groves. Then, about one hundred and fifty years ago, Liguria began to bloom: our climate was - and still is - mild, and railway lines were expanding everywhere, spreading like a living thing from the Mediterranean Sea to continental Europe. You may think it strange, but it was iron that paved the way for flowers.
Parisian exile Alphonse Karr marked the trade routes between the Côte d'Azur and the west of Liguria: he was one of the key drivers behind this transformation. Economic history gives us the figures, the reasons and the flows, but we like to think that our region was destined to bloom. This land is good land.
Good land
Breathe in the violets, the jasmine, the narcissuses, the carnations: this is the language of Liguria, with its secret alphabet of nature.
These flowers, these plants are the result of daily labour, where know-how is passed down through the ages from father to son. Just think, one hundred and fifty years are only six generations; six generations where the businesses, the people, the values haven't really changed much at all. They are still small, family-run businesses, driven by passion, just like they were in the past.
Time, patience and passion are what lifted Italy to its position as the leading European country in terms of cultivated land. Here in Liguria, we cultivate 2,670 hectares of the total 12,700, which is why when you travel along the arch of our region from west to east - Ponente to Levante - you'll realise why it's called the Riviera dei Fiori - the Riviera of Flowers.
the area of Liguria