The caruggi are the narrow stepped alleys that thread down through Tellaro from the upper car park to the seafront. They are too steep and too tight for cars, which is why the village has the still, end-of-the-road feel that the rest of the Riviera lost decades ago. Houses lean over the path; laundry hangs above your head; cats sleep in doorways painted ochre, pink and dusty green.
Coming down takes ten minutes if you stop to look, twice that if you keep losing the way. The alleys fan out and reconnect: pick any of them and you will end up at the piazza by the sea. The climb back up in summer is the reason most visitors stop for a granita before leaving.