A land of great charm and warm, cordial welcomes which is truly Italian in flavour; a crossroads where trade and tourism meet, a place where the colours of the sea merge with the hues of the Mediterranean flora, in a lush natural setting warmed by a year-round Spring-like climate which is impervious to the passing seasons. Olives, vines and citrus trees dominate the hillsides, mingling in with the nurseries and their crops of flowers, evidence of human toil and a thousand-year-old civilisation which has transformed the appearance of the local area. Along the coast there are beaches and gardens, welcoming hotels and villas set amid the green; further up, the valleys are home to ancient hilltop villages, plateaux, mountains and untouched landscapes. On the border between Italy and France, the reddish cliffs of capo Mortola hold evidence of settlements dating back to the late Palaeolithic. Nearby are the Hanbury Gardens, truly unique for their landscaping, geomorphological layout, microclimate and botanical collections.

The colours, perfumes and flavours of the Riviera are epitomised by its cooking: natural, simple and delicious. Vegetables are a favourite ingredient in the "poor" cuisine of the Riviera; foods are dressed solely with the purest olive oil, produced by crushing taggiasca olives, a small, fleshy black variety will small stones. The taggiasca produces more than just oil; it yields spremuta d'oliva, an olive juice which abounds with goodness. The dishes of the Riviera are exceptionally delicate -some credit must go to the wonderfully light oil used to dress them - making them perfect for special occasions with an extra touch of the exotic. They form part of the "Mediterranean diet", an easy to follow model for healthy, balanced eating. Foods which evoke the traditional flavours of the countryside, the very different but beautifully fresh tastes of the forest and vegetable garden: "foreign" spices are not added to the foods of the country, with the exception of a pinch of pepper, nutmeg or chilli.

Wood-fired ovens are used to cook dishes such as the soft but crisp "pasta cu-a pumata" (a variation on the pizza which is quite different from its Neapolitan cousin), courgette flowers stuffed with vegetables - never meat - and herb tarts which clothe their vegetable filling in a wafer-thin layer of pastry. Different ingredients are used with each new season (chard, boraggine or herbs, peas, artichokes, trombetta courgettes, pumpkin). In some areas of the Riviera, salt cod is roasted on the hot stone base of the oven, flaked, mixed with boiled white beans and dressed with mild chilli peppers in vinegar and olive oil. Curunéte are "necklaces" of new potatoes in their skins threaded onto a length of wire like beads and roasted; the wire is pulled out and they are eaten as they are, sprinkled with salt. "Cundiun" brings out all the fresh flavour of delicious home-grown tomatoes while "pumate séche" is a centuries-old, natural way of keeping in all their goodness for the Winter. The tomatoes are dried in the sun, wrapped in basil leaves and stored in glass jars filled with oil.