The Museo Civico in Vado Ligure holds the archaeological finds from the Roman settlement of Vada Sabatia, which stood here from the second century BC. The collection includes ceramics, coins, inscription fragments, and everyday objects from the Roman period — modest in scale but worthwhile for anyone interested in the Roman road network of the Italian northwest.
Vada Sabatia was an important junction where three consular roads converged: the Via Julia Augusta from Genoa, the road from Tortona, and the coastal road from the west. The town's strategic position explains why a significant settlement developed here; the museum helps reconstruct what that settlement looked like.
story: "The town was the origin of the family of the Roman Emperor Pertinax, who ruled for just 87 days in 193 AD before being assassinated by the Praetorian Guard. He was the son of a freed slave from Vada Sabatia — an extraordinary rise in the context of Roman social mobility."