Hotel Negro

Cenova is a quite astoundingly beautiful location and the Hotel Negro is its perfect complement. Our room was simply furnished but very comfortable, spotlessly clean, great value and with amazing views across the valley. Luigi Negro the owner is very welcoming and produces wonderful food, beautifully cooked and in prodigious quantity accompanied by his own wine. He emphasises the "legere" nature of the cooking, having quite a few words to say about the excess of butter in French cuisine (an ancient Italian/French rivalry it appears!). The lovely pool was also a godsend as the temperatures were well into the 30's. We were only there for two nights but were able to sample a couple of the walks in the area - up to the lovely little chapel of San Bernardo (take path S1 rather than S2 as the latter is not so well maintained and suffers from a few rockfalls onto the path). The path down to Lavina was a no-go as it was too overgrown.