Villino della Pergola

The lost world of the expatriate Italian Riviera lives on at Villa della Pergola, a delightfully eclectic residence built in the 19th century by a Scottish general in the hills above the seaside resort of Alassio. Little used after the death of its last British owner, Lady Hanbury, in the 1980s, the villa, along with its colonial India-style annex, Villino della Pergola, and its verdant terraced gardens, was restored a few years ago and opened as an intimate 13-room luxury guesthouse. It’s the kind of place that inspires one to throw on a summer linen suit and sip gin and tonics on the wisteria-shaded terrace. An elegant English-country style