Liguria: Cinque Terre, Portofino and Genoa

Arrive in Genoa

Genoa airport or Piazza Principe station to your hotel in the old centre

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Genoa
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

Late in the afternoon your See Sight Tours guide leads a first walk: along Via Garibaldi, the 16th-century street of merchant palaces that UNESCO listed in 2006 with the Palazzi dei Rolli, then down into the caruggi, the maze of narrow medieval lanes, past the striped marble front of San Lorenzo cathedral to the Porto Antico. We stop on the way for focaccia still warm from a bakery oven.

Soir

In the evening we sit down together to a welcome dinner of Ligurian dishes, trofie with pesto among them, and a short briefing on the week ahead.

Compris

• Pick-up at Genoa airport (GOA) or Genova Piazza Principe station
• Evening walk with your guide: Via Garibaldi, the caruggi, San Lorenzo cathedral and the Porto Antico
• Focaccia tasting
• Welcome dinner and briefing

Genoa's palaces, pesto and Camogli

Genoa to Camogli, then Santa Margherita Ligure

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Santa Margherita Ligure
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

We are at the Strada Nuova museums first thing in the morning: Palazzo Rosso and Palazzo Bianco, two of the palaces on Via Garibaldi, with their painted rooms and collections, and the roof terrace of Palazzo Rosso for the view across Genoa's slate roofs to the port.

Après-midi

Late morning we join a Genoese cook to make pesto the old way, with basil, pine nuts, garlic, cheese and oil in a marble mortar, and eat it as lunch. In the early afternoon our driver takes us about 40 minutes along the coast to Camogli, a fishing town whose tall houses are painted in ochre, pink and yellow, with trompe l'oeil windows and shutters. The harbour and the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta are best in the afternoon light; try focaccia col formaggio, the cheese focaccia of neighbouring Recco.

Soir

Then it is twenty minutes over the headland to Santa Margherita Ligure, our base for two nights, in time for an evening on the seafront.

Compris

• Strada Nuova museums: Palazzo Rosso and Palazzo Bianco (closed Mondays; departures are set so this day is not a Monday)
• Pesto-making lunch with a Genoese cook
• Camogli harbour and the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta with your guide

Portofino and San Fruttuoso by sea

Santa Margherita to Portofino and San Fruttuoso by boat, and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Santa Margherita Ligure
• En bateau

Matin

We take the first boat of the morning from Santa Margherita, about fifteen minutes round the headland into Portofino, before the day boats from other towns arrive and while the harbour is still quiet. Your guide walks you up past the church of San Giorgio to Castello Brown, a fort turned villa with gardens and a view straight down onto the moored yachts, then out along the path through pines to the lighthouse on the point. Late morning a boat takes us on round the promontory to San Fruttuoso, a Benedictine abbey in a small cove that can be reached only by sea or on foot.

Après-midi

Visit the abbey and its cloister, then lunch at a trattoria on the beach. Out in the bay, about 17 metres down, stands the bronze Christ of the Abyss, placed in 1954. Mid-afternoon the boat takes us back to Santa Margherita, and the rest of the day is yours, for a swim or a drink on the harbour.

Compris

• Boats from Santa Margherita to Portofino, on to San Fruttuoso and back
• Portofino with your guide: San Giorgio, Castello Brown and the path to the lighthouse
• The Abbey of San Fruttuoso
• Lunch at San Fruttuoso

Activités en option

• Sea kayaking off the Portofino promontory with a local outfitter, booked at your request

Along the coast to the Cinque Terre

Santa Margherita to Sestri Levante and Monterosso al Mare, then Riomaggiore by train

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Monterosso al Mare
• Environ 2 h de route

Après-midi

After lunch in Monterosso the afternoon is free: the old town, the church of San Giovanni Battista with its striped facade, or the beach at Fegina. Your Cinque Terre card starts today.

Soir

In the early evening we take the train to Riomaggiore, when the day visitors are leaving, to see the harbour and its stacked houses in the last of the light. Dinner is your choice.

Compris

• Coffee stop at Sestri Levante's Baia del Silenzio
• Lunch in Monterosso
• Cinque Terre Treno card for days 4 to 6 (trains between Levanto and La Spezia and the paid coastal paths)
• Early-evening visit to Riomaggiore with your guide

The path to Vernazza and Corniglia

Monterosso to Vernazza on foot, then Corniglia, by path or train

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Monterosso al Mare
• En train

Après-midi

Lunch is there, together. In the late afternoon, back in Monterosso, a local producer pours Cinque Terre white wine and Sciacchetrà, the sweet wine made from grapes dried on these terraces.

Compris

• Guided walk from Monterosso to Vernazza on the coastal path
• Castello Doria in Vernazza: tower and viewpoint, when open
• Lunch in Corniglia
• Tasting of Cinque Terre wine and Sciacchetrà in Monterosso

By boat to Portovenere, back to Manarola

Monterosso to Portovenere by boat, then Manarola by boat and Monterosso by train

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Monterosso al Mare
• En bateau

Matin

Mid-morning the coastal boat leaves Monterosso and calls at Vernazza, Manarola and Riomaggiore before rounding the cliffs to Portovenere, about an hour in all, with the villages and their terraces seen as the fishermen saw them. Portovenere, at the tip of the gulf of La Spezia, is part of the same UNESCO listing as the Cinque Terre. Walk with your guide past the tall harbour houses to the church of San Pietro on its rock above the sea, look over to the island of Palmaria across a narrow channel, and climb to the Doria castle if you like.

Après-midi

Lunch is in Portovenere. In the afternoon the boat takes us back to Manarola, where a short path leads to the Punta Bonfiglio viewpoint over the village and the vineyards behind it.

Soir

Then the train home to Monterosso, and a farewell dinner together.

Compris

• Coastal boat from Monterosso to Portovenere and back to Manarola
• Portovenere with your guide: the harbour, the church of San Pietro and the view to Palmaria
• Lunch in Portovenere
• Manarola and the Punta Bonfiglio viewpoint
• Farewell dinner

Activités en option

• The Via dell'Amore from Riomaggiore to Manarola, if open, with its own timed ticket

Lucca's walls and home from Pisa

Monterosso to Lucca, then Pisa airport or Pisa Centrale station

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is your choice, in a city full of trattorias. In the early afternoon it is about half an hour to Pisa, arriving at Pisa airport (PSA) by about 3 pm, or at Pisa Centrale station for trains to Florence, about an hour away. Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm.

Compris

• Lucca with your guide: the walls, Piazza dell'Anfiteatro and San Michele in Foro
• Drop-off at Pisa airport (PSA) or Pisa Centrale station

Activités en option

• Bike hire on the Lucca walls