The best hidden coastal towns in the province of Genova
The province of Genova holds a strip of coast where the Apennines drop almost straight into salt water, so the towns are stacked in narrow bands of ochre and rose stucco, slate roofs, painted shutters and trompe l'oeil window frames drawn on flat walls. The beaches are pebble and dark sand, the water clears in late spring and stays swimmable well into autumn, and the local kitchen is specific rather than generic Italian: focaccia col formaggio slid hot from the oven, anchovies from the Golfo Paradiso, trofie with pesto made from small-leaf basil grown on terraces above the road. Steep mule tracks run up from every harbour through olive and holm oak towards the ridge. The best months are May, June and September, when the seafront bars put chairs out and the trains are still half empty.
Most people arriive on this coast with one name in mind, and it is the Cinque Terre, further east in the province of La Spezia. The five villages take the traffic of the whole Riviera: booked-out trains, timed footpath tickets, queues along the Via dell'Amore, cruise passengers walking single file through streets built for handcarts. It is beautiful and it earned its reputation, which is exactly why the alleys move at shuffling pace by mid-morning in July.
The same geology, the same slate and stucco, the same anchovies and the same railway continue west along the Riviera di Levante, and that is where the province of Genova sits. Bathing coves, harbours with working fishing boats, promenades under palms and cliff paths towards Punta Chiappa all exist here too, with fewer people looking at them. Every town in this list stands directly on the sea, and most can be reached on the Genova to La Spezia line without a car. Worth a detour, and worth more than a day.
Of the 13 communes we have mapped in the province of Genova, 11 qualify as coastal towns: each sits directly on the sea. This list is the hidden ones, 8 in all, ordered smallest first. The smallest, Portofino, has 355 residents.
If you are still choosing, we have also written The best hidden towns that eat well in the province of Genova and The best beach towns in the province of Genova.
Moneglia
Why visit Moneglia
Moneglia sits at four meters in a bay on the Riviera di Levante, bracketed by two wooded headlands, one to the west and one to the east. The Romans used the bay as a stop on the Via Aurelia, and the village was a fief of the Fieschi family from Lavagna until 1153, when it passed to the Republic of Genoa, which raised fortifications on both headlands to hold the bay and the coast road below them.
The painter Luca Cambiaso, the town's defining figure, was born here in 1527, one of the most important Genoese painters of the sixteenth century. The single railway tunnel under the eastern headland, alternating one-way traffic, still controls car access to the village in summer, a modern detail that keeps the old geography of a bay closed by two points of land in working order today.
The beach here holds the national bathing award, which a comune has to win back every year on water quality, beach management and safety.
What to see in Moneglia
- Chiesa di San Giorgio. Reached through a parvis at the edge of the centro storico, in use by the Franciscans since 1396. The Adoration of the Magi by Luca Cambiaso hangs inside, a work by the town's own painter still in the building he would have known.
- Bay of Moneglia. The sand gives way at either end to smaller rocky coves reachable only from the sea, a rougher edge to the beachfront that the Bandiera Blu award does not describe.
- Castello di Monleone. Medieval fortification on the western headland, raised by the Genoese to control the bay and the Via Aurelia.
How to get to Moneglia
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 57 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October is the run for Moneglia. May, June and September are the calm months, with the bay open, the sea warm enough from late June, and the alternating-traffic railway tunnel on the eastern access road still manageable. July and August are the difficult months: the beachfront fills, and the single-lane tunnels under both headlands become a daily bottleneck. Carnevale Della Zucca falls in February.
Bogliasco
Why visit Bogliasco
Bogliasco sits 15 kilometers east of Genoa on the Riviera di Levante, where the Bogliasco torrent meets the sea between two rocky headlands. Archaeological surveys on the slopes of Mount Cordona found stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic and Mesolithic, and Roman-era artefacts confirm that the corridor down from the Val Fontanabuona to the coast was a transit route for imperial troops.
The village's signature monument is the medieval bridge near the mouth of the torrent, traditionally called il ponte romano although the surviving structure is Romanesque, built in the 13th century and remodelled in the 17th. The historic centre tightens around the parish church of Natività di Maria Santissima — a baroque rebuild of an earlier Romanesque oratory — and a network of stepped alleys (creuze) climbing into the olive terraces above.
The cove below is small, pebbled, and clear enough that the village's ASD Bogliasco club has produced multiple Italian national water polo and synchronised swimming champions. The Genoa metropolitan train brings Bogliasco into Liguria's commuter belt — twenty minutes from Brignole — which is why the pastel houses are kept lived-in rather than picture-postcard.
What to see in Bogliasco
- Ponte medievale (il "ponte romano"). 13th-century Romanesque stone bridge near the mouth of the Bogliasco torrent, remodelled in the 17th century. Named romano colloquially but architecturally Romanesque.
- Chiesa della Natività di Maria Santissima. Baroque parish church rebuilt on the footprint of an earlier Romanesque oratory, with a 17th-century facade overlooking the seafront.
- Spiaggia di Bogliasco. Small pebbled cove tucked between two rocky points, the home beach of the ASD Bogliasco water polo and synchronised swimming clubs.
How to get to Bogliasco
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 16 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through October is the open season: warm coastal days, calm sea by late spring, and the cove gets busy from June through August. The water-polo club's home season runs October through April for those who plan a fixture around the visit. November through March is quiet — the seafront stays open and the train still runs every fifteen minutes — but most of the small terraces and ice-cream shops close until Easter.
Santa Margherita Ligure
Why visit Santa Margherita Ligure
Santa Margherita Ligure sits on the inner curve of the Tigullio gulf, 35 kilometers southeast of Genova, between Camogli and Portofino. The two medieval burghs of Pescino and Corte were unified in 1813 under Napoleonic rule as Porto Napoleone, then renamed when the Kingdom of Sardinia took the coast back in 1815.
Genoese architecture survived the merger: trompe-l'oeil facades on the seafront, the 1658 Basilica of Santa Margherita d'Antiochia with its baroque interior of marble and crystal, the 1550 castle built against North African corsair raids by the architect who built Rapallo's. Villa Durazzo, raised in 1678 as a Genoese summer residence, holds three hectares of terraced gardens above the harbor.
The port still works fishing boats alongside the yachts. Most day-trippers continue to Portofino.
The ones who stop find a town that uses its seafront rather than performing it.
The beach here holds the national bathing award, which a comune has to win back every year on water quality, beach management and safety. It is also rated for accessibility, which most of this coast is not.
What to see in Santa Margherita Ligure
- Basilica di Santa Margherita d'Antiochia. Baroque parish basilica from 1658, crystal chandeliers and gilded statuary, dominating Piazza Caprera in the centro storico.
- Villa Durazzo-Centurione. Genoese summer villa from 1678 with frescoed Piano Nobile apartments and a three-hectare terraced park above the Tigullio gulf.
- Castello di Santa Margherita Ligure. Coastal fort raised by the Republic of Genoa in 1550 against Saracen and Barbary raids, designed by the architect of Rapallo's castle.
How to get to Santa Margherita Ligure
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 40 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the strongest months. The sea is warm enough from late May, the Tigullio quiets after September, and Villa Durazzo's gardens are at their best in shoulder season. July and August fill the seafront, the Portofino ferries run packed, and the inland streets keep a few degrees of shade.
Portofino
Why visit Portofino
Portofino occupies the smallest municipal territory in the Metropolitan City of Genova, 355 residents on a horseshoe harbor on the southern tip of the Portofino headland. The whole commune sits inside the Portofino Regional Natural Park and the Portofino Protected Marine Area.
Roman fortification stood on the hill above the harbor; the medieval Genoese fort took the name Castello di San Giorgio, was later renamed Castello Brown after the British consul who bought it in 1867. British and then northern European aristocrats discovered the village in the late nineteenth century.
Aubrey Herbert and Elizabeth von Arnim were among the early regulars. By 1950 tourism had replaced fishing as the main industry.
The Chiesa di San Giorgio, first built in 1154 and destroyed by a wartime bomb, was rebuilt in 1950 on the 1760 plans. The painted facades around the harbor are the photograph everyone takes.
The footpaths into the park behind the village are the reason to stay longer than the cruise day-trippers.
What to see in Portofino
- Castello Brown. Genoese coastal fort raised over a Roman site, renamed in 1867 after British consul Montague Yeats Brown, now a historic house museum above the harbor.
- Chiesa di San Giorgio. Church first built in 1154, destroyed in Second World War bombing, rebuilt in 1950 on 1760 plans, on the path up to Castello Brown.
- Faro di Portofino. Lighthouse at the tip of the Portofino headland, walking distance from the harbor along the Punta del Capo coastal path.
How to get to Portofino
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Genova is roughly 78 minutes away by road.
✷ We have written about Portofino
“A steep hill falls into the sea. The houses are crammed on the slope and painted in bright colors because they are old, packed tight, and need help. There is a small port if the cove allows it and a bigger port if the cove is generous. There is a small piazza around a small church, with maybe four restaurants, three bars, and a gelato place. There is no space for a grand square, because there is no space for grand anything in Liguria.”
Read our piece on Portofino →Tigullio Roadtrip | Four Versions of the Same Liguria
Our tip
May through June and September into October are the best months. The harbor is open, the park trails are dry, and the day-tripper rush from cruise ships is less intense than in midsummer. July and August fill the piazzetta from late morning to dusk, the ferry queues from Santa Margherita stretch to the seafront, and parking is closed to outside cars.
Camogli
Why visit Camogli
Camogli sits on the west side of the Portofino peninsula, twenty kilometers from Genova on the Golfo Paradiso. The earliest record dates to the tenth century, when it was already a tuna and shrimp fishing port.
By the nineteenth century, the town's fleet of merchant sailing ships ran to several hundred vessels and Camogli was called the city of a thousand white sails. After the naval defeat at Abukir against the British, the camogliesi shipowners reinvested in building merchant sailers under contract to the major European states.
The painted façades of the seafront houses, with their false windows and trompe-l'oeil cornices, served the returning sailors as recognition marks from sea. The Castello della Dragonara, built in the thirteenth century, still guards the harbor.
Every second Sunday of May, the Sagra del Pesce fries thirty thousand portions of fish in a single giant pan on the wharf, in honor of San Fortunato. San Fruttuoso, the eleventh-century abbey reachable by boat or trail, sits in the next cove.
The beach here holds the national bathing award, which a comune has to win back every year on water quality, beach management and safety. It is also rated for accessibility, which most of this coast is not.
What to see in Camogli
- Castello della Dragonara. Thirteenth-century fortress guarding the harbor, used as municipal seat and now a venue for exhibitions and cultural events.
- Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta. Parish basilica next to the castle on the harbor, baroque interior with marble inlays and seventeenth-century paintings.
- Abbazia di San Fruttuoso. Eleventh-century Benedictine abbey in the next cove, reachable by boat or by the coastal trail across the Portofino peninsula.
How to get to Camogli
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 33 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the strongest months for the Camogli seafront, with mild evenings and clean water before the Genova weekend traffic peaks. The Sagra del Pesce on the second Sunday of May is the date that fills the wharf. July and August are warm, often 28 to 30 degrees, and the painted-façade harbor fills with day-trippers off the Genova trains. Sagra Del Pesce falls in May.
Recco
Why visit Recco
Recco sits on a small inlet of the Golfo Paradiso between Sori and Camogli, fifteen kilometers from Genova. The town's viaduct made it a strategic Allied target in the second world war; the 1943 bombings killed 127 inhabitants and left the town to be rebuilt through the late 1940s and early 1950s, so the church, the bridge and much of the fabric standing today date from that reconstruction rather than before it.
The focaccia has documented origins in the nineteenth century, well before the war or the IGP designation gave it formal status, and it is made in a small cluster of towns along this stretch of coast, of which Recco is only one, though the one that gives the dish its name. Pro Recco's history runs on a separate track entirely, a club founded in 1913 whose record has nothing to do with the town's postwar rebuilding.
What ties the two together is only the place itself: a small gulf town, destroyed and remade, that carries a nineteenth-century food and a twentieth-century sporting dynasty as its two claims to notice.
The beach here holds the national bathing award, which a comune has to win back every year on water quality, beach management and safety.
What to see in Recco
- Santuario di Nostra Signora del Suffragio. The campanile rebuilt on the site of the main church lost to the bombings is the tallest postwar bell tower in Liguria.
- Golfo Paradiso seafront. Small inlet between Sori and Camogli, with the Bandiera Blu beach and a short lungomare looking south to the Portofino peninsula.
- Ponte di Recco. The rebuilt railway viaduct stands on the site of the structure that drew the wartime bombings, and remains the spine of the modern town.
How to get to Recco
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 25 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the strongest months on the Golfo Paradiso, with mild water and the fewest day-trippers from Genova. The Sagra della Focaccia col Formaggio in the last week of May is the date that fills the seafront. July and August are warm, often 28 to 30 degrees, and the beaches fill on weekends with Genovesi on the train line. Mangialonga Nel Golfo Paradiso falls in April.
Arenzano
Why visit Arenzano
Arenzano sits in a bay at the foot of Capo San Martino on the Riviera di Ponente, twenty kilometers west of Genova. The name covers two different territories that share a boundary rather than a character: a strip of seafront and promenade at sea level, and behind it, rising fast, the two-thirds of the commune that belongs to the mountain park, climbing to peaks above a thousand meters within an hour of the shore.
The town itself gathers between the two, with the church and the villa a short walk apart near the water, and the trailhead sitting well above both, at 758 meters, as the point where the coastal town ends and the climb into the plateau begins. Arenzano reached the Borgo dei Borghi RAI final, which brought enough recognition to fill August weekends but not enough to make the rest of the year hard.
What holds the place together is that proximity: a pilgrimage site, a seat of government in a park, a sandy bay and an alpine plateau all sit within the same short walk of each other, so the town reads less as a single attraction than as a set of unrelated destinations that happen to share an address.
What to see in Arenzano
- Santuario di Gesù Bambino di Praga. The sanctuary draws pilgrims year-round; the interior holds the statue of the Infant of Prague at the center of the devotion it gave the town.
- Villa Negrotto Cambiaso. The villa's park holds palm and cedar groves, a small aviary and a glasshouse, alongside the offices it now houses.
- Parco naturale regionale del Beigua. Monte Reixa rises to 1,183 meters within the park, reached by a network of trails that begin at sea level.
How to get to Arenzano
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 49 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June is the cleanest stretch for combining the Beigua trails with sea swimming, before the heat. July and August fill the bay with Genovesi day-trippers and weekend cars on the via Aurelia; the centro storico can be hard to park. September empties out and stays warm enough to swim into October.
Lavagna
Why visit Lavagna
Lavagna sits at sea level on the eastern Tigullio, thirty-five kilometers southeast of Genova. The slate quarried from the San Giacomo mountains behind the town roofed the Genovese palazzi and lined the schoolrooms of half of Italy, which is why the Italian word for chalkboard is also lavagna.
Around the year 1000 the Counts of Lavagna held this territory, and the family that descended from them, the Fieschi, rose from it to produce two popes. The frazione of San Salvatore sits above the main town, holding the basilica that one of those popes ordered built in bands of white marble and slate.
Down at sea level, the old center folds around the staircase and square where, on 14 August, the town reenacts a thirteenth-century wedding with the Torta dei Fieschi, a giant cake carried out to the crowd. The beach holds Bandiera Blu at the opposite edge of town, near the port.
A town built on a stone that traveled far beyond it, and on a family that did the same.
The beach here holds the national bathing award, which a comune has to win back every year on water quality, beach management and safety.
What to see in Lavagna
- Basilica di Santo Stefano. Parish church rebuilt over a sixth-century foundation, crowning the main square at the top of a wide staircase where the annual cake pageant begins its procession.
- Basilica di San Salvatore dei Fieschi. Thirteenth-century basilica in the frazione of San Salvatore, ordered by Pope Innocent IV in 1244, façade in alternating bands of white marble and local slate.
- Spiaggia di Lavagna. Long Bandiera Blu beach on the Tigullio, with one of the largest tourist ports in northern Italy at the western end.
How to get to Lavagna
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 44 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the dry months on the Tigullio. The beach water warms enough for swimming by late May. The 14 August Torta dei Fieschi is the central event of the summer: period costumes, procession from the Basilica di San Salvatore down to Piazza Marconi, and a giant cake distributed to anyone who matches a paired ticket. La Torta dei Fieschi falls in August.
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