The Italian Riviera, Without the Crush

The Ligurian coast has a scale problem. The famous places are very small and the number of people who want to see them is very large, and in July and August the arithmetic simply does not work.

Come in the second half of May, or in September, and the same coast becomes one of the loveliest places in Europe. The water is warm enough, the restaurants have tables, and the villages return to being villages.

Where to Base Yourself

Portofino is exquisite and tiny, and staying there buys you the harbour in the early morning and late evening when the day visitors have gone. That is a genuine luxury and it is priced accordingly.

Santa Margherita Ligure, ten minutes around the bay, is the sensible alternative: a proper town with a working seafront, better value, and boats to everywhere. Camogli, on the other side of the promontory, is the one people fall in love with, a tall painted fishing town with almost no international crowd.

For the Cinque Terre, base in Levanto or Sestri Levante rather than in the five villages themselves. You get a real town, somewhere to park, and a short train ride in.

Use the Boats

The coastal ferries are the right way to move along this shore. They are frequent in season, they cost little, and approaching these villages from the water is how they were designed to be seen.

The trip from Portofino or Camogli to San Fruttuoso, an abbey in a cove reachable only by boat or on foot, is the best half day on the coast. Swim off the beach in front of it.

For the Cinque Terre the train is faster and runs constantly, but take the ferry at least once for the view back at the villages stacked up the cliffs.

Walking

The Cinque Terre paths are the famous walk and sections close regularly after landslides, so check status on the day. The Monterosso to Vernazza leg is the classic and it is genuinely steep, so treat it as a hike rather than a stroll.

The quieter and arguably better walk is over the Portofino promontory from Camogli to San Fruttuoso, through pine and holm oak with the sea appearing below you. Two hours, properly worthwhile, and you can take the boat back.

Eating

This is the home of pesto, and it is worth understanding that the local version is served on trofie or trenette with potato and green beans in the same bowl, which sounds odd and is correct.

Focaccia here is a breakfast food and Recco, just along the coast, makes a cheese-filled version that is worth a detour on its own. Anchovies from Monterosso, fresh or salted, are a genuine delicacy rather than a pizza topping.

Book dinner. In the small harbour towns there are very few tables and they all go by seven.

Getting There and Around

Genoa is the nearest airport and the most sensible arrival. Pisa and Milan both work with a train connection. The coastal railway line is excellent, frequent and cheap, and it links almost everything you will want to see.

A car is more liability than asset here. The coast road is narrow and slow, parking in the villages ranges from expensive to impossible, and Portofino restricts vehicles entirely in season. Take the train and the boats.