Eugenio Montale Promenade, Via al Mare, Corso Ferrari, Via Balbi.
Expected time: 50 min.
The itinerary starts at the old railway bridge over the Sansobbia stream. The first monument you will encounter is a 3 mt. high sculpture by Walter Boj: ‘Sea Echo’ is made of a series of wheel shaped ceramic truncated cones, painted with cobalt oxide and crystalline and assembled on a polished iron board which reflects the changeable sky.
As you walk on eastbound, on the wall, you will notice a ceramic dress-like shape, called ‘Zebra skin’, belonging to the ‘Skin 1’ series by Bill Bidjocka, made of small, multi-shaped made-in-Albisola ceramic tesseras.
A few steps away, behind the wall, ‘Benessere senza struttura’ (Structure-free Well-being’) by artist Kristian Hornslet is followed first by
Milena Milani’s ‘Alb-ISOLA’ (isola=island) a 210 piece, ‘lettering-art’ ceramic panel,
and then by Corrado Levi’s cube, ‘Omaggio al Mondo – Socle d’Albisola’ (Homage to the World – Socle of Albisola).
As you walk on, you will notice the ceramic panel ‘Saludo al Mar’ and a bust of Hercules, both by Alfredo Sosabravo, acknowledged heir to artist Wilfredo Lam.
The imposing ‘Onda’ (Wave) ceramic bench, made in polychrome grès tiles by masters Aurelio Caminati, Carlos Carlé and Emanuele Luzzati will lead you to the end of the promenade.
Turn left into via al Mare and reach Via Balbi with the historic villa of the same name. Commissioned by a Genoese noble family, the Balbis, around 1600, the mansion is an example of the typical patrician architecture of the time. The exterior decoration features a series of mock columns on a green background leaning on an orange mock ashlar-worked base. The villa features a double outdoor staircase, topped by a small, roofed balcony, whose top leans on a couple of white marble columns and is actually a quite unusual and rare decorative feature for that period.
At the crossing with Corso Ferrari, the ‘Manlio Trucco’ Ceramics Museum offers a didactic itinerary covering the ceramic production in Albisola from 1700 to the XXth century. The Museum is also house to Albisola Public Library with its rich collection of more than 500 books about ceramology.