Piazza Vecchia — also called Piazza del Mercato — is the historic heart of Pietra Ligure and the natural gathering place of the old town. Enclosed by the characteristic dark stone arcades typical of this part of Liguria, it was for centuries the site of the weekly market that gave it its second name. The oratory of the Bianchi faces one side of the square; old caruggi (narrow lanes) lead off in several directions into the medieval fabric.
In the evenings it fills with locals and summer visitors drinking at the bar tables that spread beneath the arches. The scale is intimate and the atmosphere genuinely lived-in rather than staged for tourists. The old oil measures from the Republic of Genoa, embedded in the walls of the oratory, are a quietly remarkable survival — the exact quantities that merchants were legally required to dispense, set in stone more than three centuries ago.