Cannes/Cervo, Italy, Thursday, April 2, 2026
Today we took an Italian adventure and visited Cervo, Italy, via train, which is a picturesque village on the Italian coast.
Cervo is a little town on the Italian Riviera, near Imperia. The medieval village lies on a hill above the sea but there is also a more modern area and a nice little beach from where you get great views of the village above. Like many other places in Italy, it has a long history.
The Romans settled here more than 2000 years ago, in the second century BC and used Cervo as a sort of stopping place along the Via Aurelia, which at the time was one of the main trade routes connecting Italy to France and Spain. Later on, in medieval times, Cervo was a shelter for pilgrims and later on, between the 14th and 17th centuries, it was repeatedly attacked by Saracen pirates because the main activity of the place was the trade of coral.
Our day began with a beautiful Moonset over the mountains.
The trip started with a 7:45 AM French Train to Ventimiglia, Italy, 22.30 Eu (1H/36M). Then a 9:26 Italian train to Andora, 7.00 Eu (0H/48M), and finally a bus to Cervo, 2.5 Eu (0H/10M), arriving about 11 AM. A nice trip to Italy for just over 30 Eu each to get there.
When we arrived at the Cannes train station, we noticed that our train to Ventimiglia was posted on the monitor to arrive 15 minutes late. This was a concern because our connection to the Italian train was only 6 minutes. As we waited, I noticed that there was a train already on our track. SO we rushed over and boarded just before it left. It seems that the monitor was a bit off from the real schedule. Fortunately, we arrived at our connection with minutes to spare, and it was on an adjacent track. Crisis averted.
The train station in Andora was not staffed and basically a restroom building, so we had to locate the bus stop for our final leg. Luckily, the bus stop was just through a nearby tunnel.
The village itself was very walkable, albeit with many stairs.
We explored the colorful streets, the two majestic churches, and caught lunch at a seaside restaurant. It is not a large village, so we wrapped it up around 15:00.
On the train back, we decided to spend an hour or so in Ventimiglia, before our connection to Cannes.
We returned to Cannes about 19:00 after a fun day excursion.
