Vado Ligure is a small industrial port town on the Riviera delle Palme, just west of Savona. It is not a typical tourist stop, but its Roman origins and handful of historic fortifications give it more character than the commercial port suggests.
The town was founded as Vada Sabatia in the second century BC around a Roman military camp, and grew into an important junction where consular roads from Genoa, Tortona, and the western coast converged. Roman finds are displayed in the Museo Civico Antiquarium. The town was also the birthplace of the family of Emperor Pertinax — one of the more obscure imperial biographies in Roman history.
Later fortifications survive from the Genoese period: the ruins of the Santo Stefano fort, the Bastione San Giovanni, and the impressive Forte San Giacomo with its 17th-century batteries. The Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista, built over the ancient Santa Maria Vadensis, was reconstructed in baroque style in the 18th century. South of the town, the Capo di Vado lighthouse marks the cape that gives the area its name.