Ideal conditions for olive trees aren't that different from conditions that make other plants thrive. Plenty of sun, abundant water and a consistent temperature make Liguria an Eden of fertility-and flowers are a glorious result. Intoxicating smells follow you from town to town along the coast-full of sweet citrus from the lemon trees and soft bougainvillaea from blooming vines that cascade down from the hillsides. The terrain is so lush here and the economy so centered on blossoms that the

Riviera di Levante is also known as the Riviera dei Fiori (the coast of flowers). Just one mile from the French border is Hanbury Gardens, one of the largest botanical gardens in all of Italy, where plants and flowers from five continents flourish on the technicolor terraced slopes. The creation of these stepped fields has enabled flower farmers to get as much growing area as possible out of the erratic and hilly topography. Further east, the city of San Remo boasts one of the most important flower markets in southern Europe, selling Mediterranean blossoms destined for locations worldwide. Early each morning workers load thousands of baskets overflowing with scarlet roses into trucks, ready for export. Here, the climate is so hospitable that even tropical flowers and plants can be cultivated out in the open.

The kitchens of Liguria are as rich as its soil. Cooks in this region have made ample contributions to the Italian culinary canon, most notably with basil. The Genoese plant has slightly smaller leaves than other basil varieties and is considered some of the most fragrant and delicately flavored in the world. Inspired by its incomparable sweetness, cooks along the Riviera created pesto-a garden-fresh, completely raw sauce made from basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts and Parmesan cheese (see page 12 for recipe). Although many cooks now use a blender or a food processor to create the sauce, in Liguria, pesto ingredients are traditionally combined with a mortar and pestle. This distinction is important both technically and semantically. Any heat at all (like that from a blender blade) is thought to diminish the delicate flavor of the basil leaves, and if the sauce is made in any other apparatus, it's not truly pesto-the name itself comes from the verb pestare which means "to pound." When the ingredients are reduced to a thick, fragrant paste, they can be combined with a few tablespoons of cooking water and tossed with fresh pasta.Other herbs also flourish here. If you ask a seller in the Genoa market for preboggion, you'll get a sampling of the freshest, most ethereal herbs in the region-all of which vary by the season. Ligurian cooks use these herbs to stuff ravioli or for soups and sauces.

Liguria has also contributed focaccia to the world's tables-a dense flatbread with flavorings that vary from chef to chef, from a simple dusting with salt to a topping of rosemary and onion. The focaccia from northern Italy is considered the world's best; it's the softest and the most fragrant-attributes achieved by the quality of its ingredients, including the local water. Liguria's proximity to the sea means that fish figure prominently in many local dishes. From cappon magro, a fish and vegetable combination that aims to unite the land and ocean; to stoccafisso, or dried cod, which appears on its own and in soups and purées all over the region. Much of the cuisine was developed by necessity. Although not native to Ligurian waters, stoccafisso caught on in this region (as did pesto, and other dishes) in part due to the way it's prepared. Because the cod is completely preserved in salt, it is easy to bring on long voyages-an important attribute for the Genoese sailor.

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