In Ligurian the village is called Mendéga, 'sends water', and the name is accurate: springs are one thing this place has. The houses run in a long line along the slope, and in winter the sun leaves them by early afternoon.
Mendatica has 205 residents below Monte Frontè, 2151 metres, inside the Ligurian Alps park. The high hamlets — Monesi, the Valcona settlements, Le Salse — were summer pastures for shepherds. Between 1928 and 1950 the comune did not exist: it had been merged with Montegrosso Pian Latte.
The patrons are Saints Nazarius and Celsus and the feast falls on 28 July; the parish church of the village carries their names, and the present building was rebuilt in the eighteenth century.
The cucina bianca that Mendatica celebrates in August is not a festival invention: it is what was actually eaten up in the alpine dairies, when the high hamlets — Monesi, the Valcona settlements, Le Salse — were summer pastures and tomatoes never reached these altitudes. Milk, cheeses, potatoes, leeks, turnips and garlic: pale ingredients, and hence the name.
chiesa dei Santi Nazario e Celso · chiesa di Santa Margherita · cascate dell'Arroscia and 1 more
Pesto alla Genovese
Compare hotels, B&Bs and holiday homes on Booking.com for your dates.
Next up: Saints Nazarius and Celsus, patrons of a church with a Madonna by Maragliano, Wednesday 28 July
Nearest airport: Genova, 90 km away
No events match these filters.
📅 Every year, on 28 July
Mendatica celebrates Saints Nazarius and Celsus on 28 July, in the church rebuilt in the Baroque style in the 18th century after the demolition of the first 15th-century parish church, which preserves a statue of the Madonna by the sculptor Anton Maria Maragliano.
📅 Every year, in September
In September the village re-enacts the transhumance, with a costumed procession and a contest between the alpine pastures.
📅 Every year, in August
The shepherds' dishes of the Ligurian Alps — sugeli, streppa e caccia là, raviore — served across the village squares.
chiesa dei Santi Nazario e Celso Consecrated in 1454 and rebuilt by the villagers in the 1700s: the vault frescoes portray local people of the 
chiesa di Santa Margherita A fifteenth-century church at the place of the gallows: a 1512 doorway by the Cenova stonecutters and frescoes cascate dell'Arroscia Some thirty metres of falls on the Arroscia stream, along the path between Santa Margherita and Poilarocca. 
santuario della Madonna dei Colombi An eighteenth-century sanctuary on an elliptical plan, ruined by the 1887 earthquake and rebuilt in 1904. Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Mendatica, but an easy day trip away.
