The Terra is the older of Dolceacqua's two quarters, stacked up the hillside on the right bank of the Nervia. It is a small medieval maze of vaulted passages, stone arches across the alleys, low doorways, and steep stepped streets that loop around eventually back to where you started. Cars cannot enter, and most of the houses still belong to working families rather than holiday-letters.
Walk up from the bridge along Via Castello, pausing at the small artisan shops and wine cellars along the way. The arches across the alley — called caruggi here, as throughout Liguria — keep the lanes cool in summer and dry in winter. Many of the buildings still carry medieval coats of arms above the doors.