Pornassio lies where Liguria stops being sea and becomes mountain: 27 square kilometres in the province of Imperia, spread between the 392 m of Ponti and the 934 m of Colle di Nava.
The origins may be Roman: the western Ligurian hinterland was then a mosaic of rural settlements and farming estates. Around 1200 Pornassio swore allegiance to Genoa and joined the Castellany of the upper Arroscia valley. Its importance rested on two things: the summer alpine pastures and a castle controlling the road to Colle di Nava.
The village passed between several noble families before Genoa established its rule around 1385. From the 14th century on it remained an important administrative centre of Genoa's mainland domain, while tension between Piedmont and Liguria over control of the pass never eased: a military map of 1736 records the competing routes between coast and hinterland. The dispute lasted until the Napoleonic occupation of 1795.
After 1815 Pornassio became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia and then of a united Italy. The modern history of the village is tied to the mountain fortifications built between 1870 and 1880, which held Austrian prisoners in the First World War and served in turn as garrison, partisan base and prison for the resistance in the Second.
In 1303 an edict of the Marquises of Clavesana imposed the cultivation of the Ormeasco grape. It is a date that counts for more than many battles: from then on the wine has defined the economy, the terraced landscape and the calendar of festivals. Ormeasco di Pornassio is today a controlled designation of origin, with production limited to about five hundred hectolitres a year, celebrated in Villa on the last Sunday of August.
Local cooking has two souls. White Cuisine, born of transhumant shepherding and built on milk and dairy, potatoes and durum wheat flour. And the frugal cooking of the hinterland: herb ravioli and tarts, stuffed cabbage, condiglione salad, rabbit with olives and Ormeasco, wild boar with polenta.
Summary of the historical notes published by the Municipality of Pornassio.
Six hamlets, six altitudes, six stories.
The administrative centre of the municipality, home to the Town Hall and the main post office. It preserves the early-18th-century chapel of St Aloysius Gonzaga and the mid-16th-century chapel of St Anthony the Abbot.
Perched on a knoll overlooking the valley, Villa preserves its 13th-century castle and the parish church of San Dalmazzo. It is the heart of Ormeasco production, the ruby-red wine celebrated on the last Sunday of August.
The oldest and architecturally richest settlement in the municipality: medieval stone portals (one dated 1169), former artisan workshops and a still-working water system with oil mill, flour mill and sawmill. A 7th-century funerary urn was unearthed here around 1911. The San Bernardo Fair falls on the Sunday before 20 August.
An example of spontaneous rural architecture at 660 m. Here stand the 15th-century church of the Annunciation and the Baroque sanctuary of Madonna della Chiazza, frescoed in 1898.
A holiday resort on the pass linking Liguria and Piedmont. Five 19th-century forts, the Alpini memorial holding General Battisti's remains and a 15th-century Romanesque chapel. The Alpini Festival takes place on the first Sunday of July.
The most recent residential area, stretching along the SS28 road just below Colle di Nava. It is the starting point of hiking route G, the historical and monumental one.