Alassio wall, Installation art on Corso Dante Alighieri, Alassio, Italy
The Alassio wall is an installation of ceramic tiles, bronze and stone in central Alassio, Italy. It runs along Corso Dante Alighieri for a length of fifty meters and displays dozens of painted ceramic panels featuring signatures and messages from famous personalities.
Painter Mario Berrino and writer Ernest Hemingway placed the first signed ceramic tiles on the stone wall in front of Café Roma in 1953. Over the following decades, more panels were added, documenting the town's connections to artists and intellectuals.
The wall's nickname, "il muretto dell'amore", comes from the Miss Muretto beauty pageant held from 1953 to 2013, which launched Simona Ventura (winner in 1986) and Maria Teresa Ruta (1977). Tiles also carry the coats of arms of Italian and foreign municipalities, associations and clubs, and even characters such as Hänsel and Gretel.
The installation sits directly opposite Café Roma on Corso Dante Alighieri and is easy to find from the Charlie Chaplin playground. Visitors can examine the bronze sculptures and ceramic works at their own pace, as access to the wall is freely available at any time.
The first three tiles were fixed at dawn in 1953 without permission from the municipality: those of Ernest Hemingway, the Quartetto Cetra and guitarist Cosimo Di Ceglie. No one removed them, and Berrino kept adding tiles. The wall is twinned with the Principality of Seborga.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,843 contributors worldwide.
