Quiliano is a small hill commune in the Ligurian hinterland, tucked into the valley of the Quiliano stream a few kilometres west of Savona. It's not a destination in its own right, but if you're exploring the coast between Savona and Vado Ligure, the valley is worth a detour: ancient Roman road traces, Romanesque churches, and wooded hills that feel a world away from the coastal resort towns below.
The valley follows the course of the ancient Via Julia Augusta, the Roman road linking Genoa to France. Two Roman bridges survive in the Val Quazzola, along with the ruins of three more — the footprints of a road that shaped this coastline for centuries. The church of San Pietro a Carpignana, with its 15th-century campanile, preserves Romanesque stonework at the entrance to the valley.
The village produces a local white wine called Buzzetto, made from a grape variety found almost nowhere else. It's the kind of wine you drink at a table in someone's garden and never quite track down again.