🌋 Nature & views

Cascate dell'Arroscia

📍 Mendatica, Liguria · 40/100

The waterfalls lie along the nature path that links the church of Santa Margherita to the place called Poilarocca, one of the high hamlets of Mendatica that have since vanished. It is not a single drop: the Arroscia stream comes down in several leaps, some thirty metres in all.

What to see

The Arroscia rises a little above here, within Mendatica's territory, and these are its first falls: young water, which has only just begun the descent towards the valley it will give its name to. All around is the woodland of the Ligurian Alps regional nature park.

Visiting

The path starts from the village and passes the fifteenth-century church of Santa Margherita, which deserves the stop: the round trip takes half a day at an easy pace. Walking boots are needed, because this is a mountain path and not an equipped stroll.

Our editors' tip

Come in spring, when the snow melts on Monte Frontè: that is when the falls carry most water. In high summer the flow drops and the spectacle shrinks with it.

Also in Mendatica

Chiesa di Santa Margherita

A fifteenth-century church at the place of the gallows: a 1512 doorway by the Cenova stonecutters and frescoes.

📍 1.5 km

Nearby

The closest places worth seeing as the crow flies, even across province lines.

Chiesa di San Biagio

A baroque parish church with a side doorway of 1435 carved by the stonecutters of Cenova.

📍 Montegrosso Pian Latte · 2.1 km

Chiesa di San Pietro

A church perhaps of the tenth century outside the village: presbytery, fresco traces and the Fieschi arms.

📍 Cosio d'Arroscia · 3.4 km

Cappella di San Bernardo

A high mountain church above Armo: first built in 1641, rebuilt by the villagers themselves in 1953.

📍 Armo · 8.2 km