Ventimiglia is located at the mouth of the River Roia, which flows into the Ligurian Sea. The Roia divides the city into two zones, the Medieval Part, the so-called "Upper Ventimiglia," and the modern town, built from the beginning of the nineteenth century on the Left Bank.

According to historians, the original settlement was founded by the tribe of the Ligurian Intemelian in prehistoric times, with the name of “Albium Intemelium”. According to the most reliable studies, the etymology refers to the concept of "city (“Albium”or “Albom”) of the Ligurian Intemelian (“Intermelium”) (See A. Gandolfo," The Province of Imperia: History, Arts, Traditions, Blu Edition , 2005). The two words then merged into “Albintimilium” (  the classical Latin name of the town) through a form “Vintimilium”, played at the popular level as “Vigintimilium” [Twenty Miles]); in the Middle Ages it was renamed “Vintimilia”.

In ancient times it developed as a maritime and agricultural center; Ventimiglia was first an outpost  against the Greeks of Marseille, and with the "Ingauni" of Albenga, perhaps it allied with Carthage during the Second Punic War; then, after a period of hostilities with Rome, in 180 BC, it came under Rome and accepted its laws. Probably, in the first century BC, the Ligurian Intemelian acquire  the title of “municipium”. In 49 BC it obtained the Roman citizenship by Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) and it was called "Albintimilium" in the Augustan Age.

In Roman times the city was enriched with villas, aqueducts, fountains, a public forum, a theater and baths. In 1251, after the domination of the Counts of Ventimiglia, the Genoese captured the city. Since then the city followed the fortunes and fates of Genoa, passing in the eighteenth century under the Napoleonic rule, and then under the Savoy. With the Unification, finally, it entered into the Kingdom of Italy (1861). Between the nineteenth and twentieth century Ventimiglia had a substantial demographic trends, and the lower part of the city had a large commercial and cultural development, with the discovery of new archaeological sites, which prove the antiquity of human settlements of the place.

Today Ventimiglia, for its environmental and cultural characteristics has become a tourist center of major importance, which also has rediscovered the ancient traditions, such as the Battle of the Flowers, historical parades and Flag-wavers.