Nine sides: the Torrione of Santo Stefano al Mare is neither round nor square, and that is the first thing you notice as you reach the seafront. The Republic of Genoa finished it in 1566 at the mouth of the rio Torre, after a run of Saracen landings on this coast; the raid of 1544, led by Aly Amat, had stayed in the memory of the fishing village.
What to see
The nine-sided plan is what makes the detour worthwhile: in the defensive architecture of western Liguria, built of square or cylindrical towers, nine sides are a rare case. Look at the entrance, because there is only one: the tower has a single door, and above it project the hanging sentry boxes, the small turrets from which the stretch of sea in front was watched. Until the 19th century the building was armed with cannon.
Its second life is civilian. In 1916 the navigator Enrico Alberto d'Albertis gave the tower to the Congregazione di Carità of Santo Stefano to serve as a shelter for the sick poor; after restoration it has housed the town hall since 1987. Anyone stepping in for a certificate does so inside a 16th-century war machine, listed as a cultural asset since 1937. Nobody here uses a longer name: it is the Torrione, full stop.
Visiting
The tower stands on the seafront at the edge of the old centre, and you cannot miss it: it is the building that dominates the waterfront. You reach it from the Aurelia, state road 1, or better still by bicycle: the Riviera Ligure cycle path, 27 kilometres on the old railway line between Ospedaletti and Imperia, runs right past. As it is the town hall, you can walk in during office hours: expect stairs, corridors and service desks, not a museum. The reason to come is still the outside.
Our editors' tip
Do not stop at the Torrione: take the cycle path eastwards and in a few minutes you reach the Torre degli Aregai, built in the early 17th century, with four irregular sides and turrets at the corners. They are two different answers to the same problem, seeing the pirates arrive, a short distance apart. On the way back there are the parish church of Santo Stefano protomartire and, beside it, the oratory of the Santo Cristo, with its Vicenza stone relief on the front.