The Ruins of the Hotel Angst

In the 19th century, the sleepy Ligurian town of Bordighera was among the most indulgent attractions for the elite traveling the Italian Riviera, and perhaps nothing better exemplifies its former glory—and subsequent decay—better than the appropriately named Hotel Angst.  

Allured in part by the 1855 publication of Doctor Antonio by Giovanni Ruffini—an exiled Italian author seeking British support for Italian unification—Britons flocked en masse to a town redolent with exotic palms, olive trees, and that sweet, healthy coastal breeze, leaving in their wake churches, tennis courts, and numerous other distinctly British buildings that remain anachronistic to this small Italian town.