On 17 October 2004 thieves broke into the church of San Nicolò di Capodimonte and took away the last surviving works of art from its centuries-long past. In June 2007 the parish answered with a reparative gift: the painter Raimondo Sirotti made and donated a work inspired by a seventeenth-century painting of Saint Nicholas by Domenico Fiasella, and the new canvas was set into the baroque frame that had held one of the stolen images. The building is on the list of Italian national monuments.
What to see
The church is Romanesque and was built in the twelfth century by the canons regular of San Rufo, according to local tradition on the site of a chapel dedicated to Saint Romulus. Studies suggest that a small cluster of houses, almost independent of the town of Camogli, stood around the building next to the monastery. Raids by Saracen pirates forced the whole complex to be abandoned during the fifteenth century, and from then on the old place of worship passed through the most varied civil and religious uses.
It returned to worship in 1870; the restoration carried out between 1925 and 1926 gave it the bare stone facade with exposed blind arches that you see today. Inside it is a single nave on a T-shaped plan, built entirely of black slate: the same stone as Ligurian roofs, used here for the walls. Fragments of medieval frescoes survive on the walls, left over from the centuries of abandonment.
Visiting
There is no road: San Nicolò sits on the footpath that drops from the parish church of San Rocco towards the coast and carries on to Punta Chiappa, and it can only be reached on foot. Much of the route is stone steps, steep and without shade on the open stretches, so bring proper soles and water. The church is often locked outside services; the terrace in front of it, looking over the Golfo Paradiso, is always open and is half the visit.
Our editors' tip
We set out from San Rocco in the late afternoon, when the light comes in low from the west and the path is in shadow: the descent is easy and the black stone of the church stops looking grim. Remember, though, that the effort comes on the way back, all uphill, and it is worth reckoning with before going all the way down to Punta Chiappa.