Imperia's remarkable trees are mostly in the hill villages behind it, by churches and on mountain passes, and you need a car for most of them. Five are on this map, all from Italy's national list of monumental trees: a Bunya pine 26 metres tall in Imperia itself, a hackberry five metres round at the church of Diano Borello, a pair of downy oaks at Maro Castello, two tall horse chestnuts at the church of Sant'Agostino in Triora, and a sweet chestnut eight and a half metres round on the Passo Furchè above Ceriana.
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Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii) · Porto Maurizio, Imperia
The cones of this tree can weigh up to about ten kilograms, which is why people in Australia are told not to park under one. This Bunya pine on Viale Matteotti in Imperia is 26 metres tall and 3.45 metres round, according to Italy's national list of monumental trees, and it is the only one of the province's listed trees in the city itself.
The Bunya pine comes from the rainforests of south-east Queensland, where Aboriginal peoples gathered in great numbers for the bunya nut harvest. It reached European gardens in the nineteenth century and suits the Riviera, where frost is rare. You can tell it from the palms and pines around it by its shape: a straight trunk carrying a dense dome of stiff, prickly, glossy leaves arranged in whorls, more like a giant candelabra than a pine.
It stands at the Palazzo della Provincia, the provincial government building, on the main road through Porto Maurizio. Nobody has published when it was planted or how old it is. If you know, tell us.
Our pin is the register's point. The tree is tall enough to see from the street, and seeing it costs nothing.
Photo: RobertoClaudioMariaBottino (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Mediterranean Hackberry (Celtis australis) · Diano Borello, Valle Dianese
A hackberry five metres round is a big one: this species is planted in squares and by churches all over the Mediterranean, and most never come close. Italy's national list of monumental trees measures this one at 5.1 metres round and 15 metres tall, at the parish church of San Michele Arcangelo in Diano Borello.
The church stands on a promontory above the Diano valley, on a cobbled churchyard. Over its door a fresco of Saint Michael between Saint Peter and Saint John the Baptist carries the date 11 June 1485 in Roman numerals, and the stone balls on the facade are, by local tradition, the remains of a temple to Diana that gave the valley its name.
The hackberry is the classic shade tree of Mediterranean squares, with smooth grey bark like an elephant's skin, leaves with a long pointed tip, and small dark berries that birds love. Nobody has published how old this one is. If you know, tell us.
Our pin is the register's point. It costs nothing to see, and the view over the valley from the churchyard is worth the stop as well.
Downy Oak (Quercus pubescens) · Maro Castello, Valle Impero
These two oaks are listed together on Italy's national list of monumental trees, a few metres apart in the meadow called Prato della Corte at Maro Castello, and the list gives them the same measurements: 3.32 metres round and 19 metres tall each.
Maro Castello is a hamlet of Borgomaro, high in the Impero valley, named for the castle of Maro, now in ruins after it was destroyed in battle. Borgomaro itself is an odd one among Ligurian villages, laid out on a grid like a chessboard instead of in rings, and the valley is known for its rare Conio beans.
The downy oak is the oak of dry Mediterranean hillsides, named for the soft hairs on the underside of its young leaves and shoots. It holds its dead brown leaves through much of the winter, so even in January the pair will not look bare. Nobody has published how old they are. If you know, tell us.
Our pin is the register's point, and we could not confirm whether the meadow itself is open, so look from the lane if you are unsure. Seeing them costs nothing.
Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) · Ceriana, Valle Armea
Eight and a half metres round and only five metres tall: that is how Italy's national list of monumental trees measures this sweet chestnut on the Passo Furchè, a pass on the mountain ridge above Ceriana. A trunk that thick on a tree that short is the shape of a very old chestnut that has lost its top and kept going.
A mountain-bike guide to the ridge route calls it a 1,300-year-old chestnut and says it is worth the trip on its own. Nobody has measured its age, and a Swiss survey of monumental chestnuts warns that girth is a poor clock: a trunk of eight metres could mean anything from three to seven centuries. So we leave the age open and let the trunk speak.
Ceriana sits among chestnut woods, olive groves and flower fields in the upper Armea valley, and this tree stands high above it, on the dirt ridge road that runs under the Fascia d'Ubaga towards Monte Furchè.
Getting here is part of the trip: a long climb by car or bike, then gravel. It stands on open mountain land and costs nothing to see.
Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) · Triora, Valle Argentina
Triora is famous for its witches. In 1588 women of this mountain village were accused of witchcraft, inquisitors came from Genoa, and the trials dragged on for years; the village is known as the site of the last witch trials held in Italy, and keeps the story alive with a museum and a festival. Its trees are a quieter reason to come.
Two horse chestnuts stand by the church of Sant'Agostino, and Italy's national list of monumental trees records both: one 3.9 metres round and 24.5 metres tall, the other 3.62 metres round and 28 metres tall. That is tall for trees in a mountain village.
The horse chestnut comes from the mountains of the Balkans and was planted all over Europe for its shade and its spring candles of white flowers, which come out here in May. In autumn the shiny brown conkers drop from their spiky cases, and the leaves turn yellow and rust.
A third listed horse chestnut stands at the church of San Bernardino, a few hundred metres away. Nobody has published how old any of them are. If you know, tell us. They stand by a church and cost nothing to see.