Sarzana

Sarzana is the cradle of the Bonaparte family. One of his ancestors, Francesco Buonaparte, known as "Mauro", lived at the beginning of the XVIth century in this Ligurian city and came to settle in Ajaccio, Corsica, as a soldier in the Genoese cavalry. Let us also name Giovanni Buonaparte, notary, mayor of Sarzana and one of the distant ancestors of Napoleon Bonaparte, who married Isabella Calandrini, great-niece of the Pope, on April 24, 1397.

Today, this city of Liguria keeps many traces of its important past, as an advanced base of Genoa in Tuscan territory and rival to Pisa. Its position on one of the most important Roman trade routes, the famous "Via Francigena", has made Sarzana a city coveted through the centuries by Florentines, Genoese and Pisans.

Its patrimonial wealth is therefore numerous, like its cathedral and its fortresses of Sarzanello and Firmafede. But the old town is just as rich with its historic palaces, richly decorated, built by noble families and a traditional Ligurian culinary culture.