A narrow alley in Moneglia’s old town.
While walking through the old town of Moneglia in Liguria, Italy, I came across this small side passage and immediately found it worth photographing. It is the kind of narrow alley that seems to appear almost unexpectedly from the main street, inviting you to stop for a moment and look more closely.
Moneglia lies along the Ligurian coast east of Genoa, not far from Sestri Levante, and it is one of those villages where moving just a few meters away from the main streets can completely change the view. Some time ago, while walking through the old town, I noticed this particular corner and decided to capture it with my camera.
What interested me most was the way these small side alleys are actually used. They are not simply narrow passages between buildings. They are part of everyday life in the village and, in some places, they are compact enough to become small outdoor seating areas for cafés and restaurants. The result feels natural, as if the old architecture and contemporary life have simply found a way to share the same limited space.
This is exactly the kind of detail I enjoy photographing in Ligurian villages. I am not always looking for a sea view or the most famous square. Sometimes a narrow passage, a doorway, a window or a small section of a wall can tell me more about a place than a postcard panorama.
If you are wondering what to see in Moneglia, there is naturally much more than this single alley. But I think these secondary corners are an important part of the village’s character. The old town is compact and easy to explore on foot, and wandering without a precise destination often leads to the most interesting views.
The main alley provides the obvious route through the village, but stepping into one of its side passages immediately changes the perspective. The buildings seem closer together, the street becomes more intimate and ordinary details become much more noticeable.
A small historical curiosity about Ligurian villages is the role played by their narrow alleys. These passages were not designed with modern tourism or photography in mind. They developed as a practical response to the limited space available between the coast and the surrounding hills. Their narrow proportions are still one of the features that give many Ligurian old towns their distinctive character.
There was nothing staged about this photograph. I simply encountered the alley while walking and liked the way it looked. The fact that such a small space can also function as an outdoor seating area is, to me, a good example of how villages like Moneglia make use of every available corner without losing their identity.
Moneglia also has a different scale from some of the larger coastal towns of Liguria. It is small enough to explore at a relaxed pace, yet there are plenty of details for someone who enjoys walking and photography. That is one of the reasons I find myself returning to places like this.
Its proximity to Sestri Levante makes Moneglia particularly familiar to me. From my area, it takes roughly twenty minutes by car to reach it, so visiting does not necessarily require a long trip or elaborate planning. Sometimes a few free hours are enough to walk through the village again and see what catches my attention.
Looking at this photograph, I particularly like the fact that it is not one of the obvious postcard views of Moneglia. It could almost be any one of the many narrow passages found while walking through the old town. That is precisely why it fits the way I like to photograph. My blog is also a collection of these small fragments of familiar places, rather than only their most famous images.
This photograph connects naturally with another story on my blog about Ligurian villages, the steep alley in Vernazza. There too, the subject was not a monument but a passage through the village. In both photographs, it was the shape of the street and the way it fitted into the surrounding buildings that caught my attention.
These are simple details, but they are often the ones I remember most clearly. A narrow street, a few tables in a small corner, the buildings close together: ordinary elements of village life that can become a good photographic subject when you take the time to notice them.
Perhaps that simplicity is what I like most about Moneglia. There is no need to search constantly for something spectacular. Walk through the old town, take a side street and let curiosity decide where to go next.
When you visit a Ligurian village, do you also end up wandering into the side alleys, or do you prefer to stay on the main streets? Add a comment or go to the bottom of the site to read what other visitors have written.
Photo taken with Canon EOS M100 and lens Tamron 16-300.
This is a video of the alley of the village:
Video recorded with a GoPro Hero 10 Black.
I took several photos in the village, and if you’d like to see them all, click here:
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