IF YOUR clients are regular visitors of the French Riviera, they will certainly be excited at the prospect of a newly opened outlet shopping about an hour’s drive away. The recent opening of The Luxury Mall Outlet Sanremo is the perfect excuse to slip into Italy’s Liguria region, whenever visiting Cannes or Nice.
The Mall Luxury Outlets is a renowned Italian company specialised in offering exclusive luxury shopping experiences. The lush, green hills of the Tuscan countryside provide a picturesque setting for The Mall Firenze, while the Ligurian hills make the backdrop for The Mall Sanremo.
The Mall Sanremo rises from the medieval town of Sanremo like a temple of luxury, but price-happy retail worship. While some of the stores in the mall are available on the Croisette in Cannes, the outlet stores in The Mall Sanremo offer more affordable options from the very same brands. This makes a visit to the mall across the French-Italian border a must-visit for high fashion brand enthusiasts.
The Mall Sanremo rises from the medieval town of Sanremo like a temple of luxury, but price-happy retail worship
A strict policy ensures that fashion items made for factory outlets do not find any space on the shelves, and only quality items that are most likely last season are available to buy. Brands such as Alexander McQueen, Jimmy Choo, Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta opened late last year to join the world’s finest clothing, accessories, fragrance and footwear brands.
On arrival, the Welcome Lounge teams are ready to welcome customers and accompany them on their visit, making it exclusive in everything, from the information related to the location, to the current promotions, till a personalised plan to discover the surrounding area.
For a tailored shopping experience, teams of personal shopping assistants are available to advise and guide in the choice of outfits to create a new and a personalised look. Visitors can also benefit from hands-free shopping and tax-free services, which allow visitors from non-EU countries to get an immediate refund on their purchases.
The brands of The Mall Sanremo include Balenciaga, Dolce&Gabbana, Ermenegildo Zegna, Etro, Giorgio Armani, GCDS, Gucci, Karl Lagarfeld, Loro Piana, MSGM, Poltrona Frau, Santoni, Versace and a luxury multi-brand store that sells products by Roberto Cavalli, Missoni, John Richomnd, Brioni, Corneliani, Ermanno by Ermanno Scervino. The Kids’s Around shop stocks collections for children: Chloe Kids, Givenchy Kids, Little Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagarfeld Kids and Boss Kidswear.
By way of entertainment, there is a cosy café offering beverages and titbits within the mall but it is outside the mall that foodies will truly rejoice. A quaint destination in its own right, Sanremo makes for a good stopover for anyone interested in history, culture and cuisine.
The seafood is fresh, with the prawns being a must try. The focaccias are freshly baked, with certain recipes exclusive to Sanremo and being handed down for a few centuries. Extra virgin olive oil – strictly produced locally – is the king and home-made pasta is the queen of the local cuisine. The town houses speciality restaurants and even a bakery that has been around for centuries, a watering hole for medieval travellers.
“We don’t want people to spend the entire day here and get tired of shopping; we want our guests to have a beautiful day. This is why we have very select luxury brands. A beautiful day is about two or three hours of shopping, a beautiful sunset, high level experiences such as sailing, whale watching, food tasting or home cooking,” says Giorgio Motta, director of The Mall Luxury Outlets.
“Our final goal is for guests to fall in love with our destinations and come back again. We want people to understand our passion for beauty.”
Sanremo has a beautiful old town that rises like a pinecone above the ground and is called La Pigna, where one can find traces of medieval life and fragrant orchards of lemon, oranges and olives. There are also a few quaint restaurants in the neighbourhood, overlooking medieval water fountains.
Other notable attractions include a century-old casino in the Belle Epoque style and a Russian Orthodox Church, reminiscent of St Basils.
