Testico sits high on a ridge between the Merula and Lerrone valleys, a quiet farming village that has been watching the world go by since Roman times. The views from up here are panoramic and the pace is unhurried — this is deep Ligurian hinterland, far from the beach crowds.
The village has real history. It was a medieval stronghold of the bishops of Albenga, who sold it to the powerful Doria family in 1398. Napoleon's troops stormed through in 1796, making use of the same strategic ridge position that had made it worth defending for centuries. The ruins of the castle of Monte Arioso, from the thirteenth century, are still faintly visible.
The parish church of Santi Pietro e Paolo is worth seeking out — a baroque building from the seventeenth century with a fine altarpiece from the same era and eighteenth-century frescoes in the vault and baptistery. Outside town, the village is ringed by woods and pastures that invite an easy walk.