Calice Ligure is a small hill village in the Ligurian hinterland behind Finale Ligure, set in a valley of peach orchards, olive groves, and vineyards at the foot of the Clavarezza hill. It is the kind of place that rewards a slow detour from the coast: no famous sights, but good rural Ligurian landscape and a tidy medieval core.
The village has had an eventful history for its size. A possession of the Del Carretto lords and later the marchesi di Finale, it fell under Spanish rule from 1598 to 1713 before passing to the Republic of Genoa. Napoleonic-era earthworks survive at Pian dei Corsi, and there are traces of a Roman bridge on the outskirts. The eighteenth-century parish church of San Nicolò rises over the remains of a thirteenth-century predecessor, with a baroque façade and an oversized dome that dominates the village skyline. The churches of San Sebastiano and San Lorenzo, both on the roads leading out of the village, have Renaissance portals that are quiet architectural pleasures.
Calice earned a small artistic reputation in the 1960s when artists were drawn here by the legacy of Emilio Scanavino, a noted Genoese painter born in the village. It is still a peaceful retreat, busier with summer walkers and cyclists than with art pilgrims.