Liguria: Cinque Terre, Portofino and Genoa

1. Day 1: Arrive in Genoa

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

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Genoa
   Day 1 details

   We meet you at Genoa's Cristoforo Colombo airport (GOA) or at Genova Piazza Principe station and take you to the hotel in the old centre; if you fly into Milan, a direct train brings you down to Genoa in about one and a half to two hours. Plan to arrive by about 2 pm. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Free until the late-afternoon walk

   Activity: About 1.5 hours on foot on stone lanes, some of them steep.

2. Day 2: Genoa's palaces, pesto and Camogli

   Genoa to Camogli, then Santa Margherita Ligure

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Santa Margherita Ligure
   Day 2 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Evening free in Santa Margherita

   Activity: About 2 to 3 hours on foot, with stairs in the palaces and a short climb in Camogli. The Strada Nuova museums close on Mondays, so we schedule departures so that day 2 never falls on one; if a closure catches us out, we visit the Palazzo Reale or San Lorenzo's treasury instead.

3. Day 3: Portofino and San Fruttuoso by sea

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

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Santa Margherita Ligure
   Day 3 details

   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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Stay in Portofino harbour while the others walk to the lighthouse, and ride the boat both ways.

   More active option: Walk from San Fruttuoso back to Portofino on the promontory path, about 2 hours with steep climbs through the woods, then take the boat to Santa Margherita.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: If the sea is too rough for the boats, we go to Portofino by van and walk to the lighthouse, and visit San Fruttuoso on day 4 if the boats run.

4. Day 4: Along the coast to the Cinque Terre

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

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Monterosso al Mare
   Day 4 details

   A late start, then our driver takes us about half an hour down the coast to Sestri Levante for coffee on the Baia del Silenzio, a small curved beach of fishing boats and painted houses. From there we turn inland on the motorway and come back down to the sea at Monterosso al Mare, the largest of the five Cinque Terre villages, in about an hour and a quarter. The villages, the paths between them and Portovenere are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a national park, and cars cannot enter their centres, so the van takes our bags as far as the road allows. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Afternoon free in Monterosso; dinner on your own

   Activity: Riomaggiore is all steps and steep lanes; about 1.5 hours on foot in the evening.

   

5. Day 5: The path to Vernazza and Corniglia

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

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Monterosso al Mare
   Day 5 details

   We are on the path at about 8 am, before the heat and before the trains bring the day visitors. The coastal path from Monterosso to Vernazza is about 3.5 km and two hours: up several hundred stone steps through olive groves and vineyard terraces, then along the hillside with the sea below, and down into Vernazza with the whole village laid out under you. Coffee on the harbour square, then climb the tower of the Castello Doria for the view back along the coast. From here those who want more walk on to Corniglia, about 4 km and two hours higher above the sea; the others take the train one stop with the guide and ride the shuttle bus up from the station. Corniglia sits on a headland about 100 metres up and is the quietest of the five. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Take the train to Vernazza at about 10 am and meet the walkers on the harbour, then the train to Corniglia and the shuttle bus up from the station.

   More active option: Carry on from Vernazza to Corniglia on the coastal path, about 4 km and 2 hours more, with a long climb out of Vernazza.

   Free time: Free time between lunch and the tasting

   Activity: The hardest walking day: about 3.5 km and 2 hours with steep steps for the first path, about 7.5 km and 4 hours for both. Shoes with grip and water are essential. If the park closes the path after rain, we go by train.

   

6. Day 6: By boat to Portovenere, back to Manarola

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

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Monterosso al Mare
   Day 6 details

   Today we see the coast from the water. 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. 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. Then the train home to Monterosso, and a farewell dinner together.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Free time: Free time in Portovenere after lunch

   Activity: If the sea is too rough for the boat, we go by train to La Spezia and bus to Portovenere.

   

7. Day 7: Lucca's walls and home from Pisa

   Monterosso to Lucca, then Pisa airport or Pisa Centrale station

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   We leave Monterosso at about 9 am and drive about two hours south into Tuscany, to Lucca, a walled city on the plain. Its 16th and 17th-century ramparts, about 4 km round, were never needed for war and are now a broad, tree-lined promenade on top of the walls. Walk a stretch of them with your guide, or hire a bike and ride the whole circuit. Then we drop down into the centre: Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, an oval of houses built on the ring of the Roman amphitheatre, and the white marble front of San Michele in Foro. 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.

   Included

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

   Optional experiences

   • Bike hire on the Lucca walls

   Easier option: If your flight leaves before about 4 pm, we take you straight from Monterosso to Pisa airport.

   Free time: Lunch on your own in Lucca

   Activity: Book a flight leaving Pisa after about 5 pm to see Lucca.

Wildlife and weather: April to June and September to October are mild, good for walking, and the boats are running. Spring brings wildflowers on the terraces; September and October bring the grape harvest and warm sea. July and August are hot and at their busiest, so we leave them out.

• Genoa1 night
• Santa Margherita Ligure2 nights
• Monterosso al Mare3 nights