Zuccarello is a fortified medieval hamlet in the Neva valley of the Ligurian hinterland, far enough inland from the coast to feel like a different world. Founded in 1248, it was bitterly contested for centuries owing to its position controlling the mountain road between the Ligurian coast and Piedmont. The Del Carretto family ruled it for most of the Middle Ages, and their ruined castle still dominates the hill above.
What remains is one of the best-preserved medieval villages in the Savona hinterland: a single main street lined with porticoed houses on both sides, unchanged in its basic structure for seven centuries. The medieval bridge over the Neva at the base of the village is described as the finest in western Liguria, and the parish church of San Bartolomeo retains a Romanesque campanile predating the rest of the building.
Zuccarello was the birthplace of Ilaria del Carretto, whose tomb in Lucca’s Cathedral of San Martino — carved by Jacopo della Quercia — is one of the great masterpieces of Italian Gothic sculpture. The surrounding hills produce olives, fruit and vegetables; the valley floor is good walking country.