Just got back from guiding in Finale for Finale Freeride and can fully recommend it – though its more of a shuttle area. Great built trails that are a mixture of gradients and because the valleys change so much depending on the height the trails change too. If you link up trails from the top of the drop off point to the villages you drop into you’re looking at 800m of descending. You can do around 6-7 of those in a day. Its really all about the cornering here – fast and a mixture of bermed, flat and off camber – really good practice for getting your ass out and in the the ‘DH position’. May be worth taking a full face though. Good for about 3 days of riding without repeating much BUT-
An hour away is Molini where I spent 4 days as a ‘holiday’. What a valley! So beautiful and the trails are blinding. 1000m descents through steep forests and a much more ‘natural’ feel to the trails with loads of switchbacks more reminiscent of the Sierra Nevada. Great accommodation, food and guiding with Jo and Adi at Riviera Bike. The town feels like an Italian Bubion too. Its also possible to do more extended all mountain days here than finale, worth checking out the mountain to coast run.
Added to this is Calizzano – another shuttle area run from Final Borgo square in Finale, plus all the possibilities in Sospel, Peille, San Remo and others and you could spend months in one stretch of coastline. Riviera Bike can organize days in all the other spots. You can also fly into Genova and get close to all these areas by (cheap) train.
So basically Finale to get your corners dialled, Callizano for a quiet version of Finale, Molini to get into inbred mountain towns with full on techy trails.
p.s. I took my pitch with 160mm forks and Dh tyres – ideal bike for the area.