The 6 best hidden towns that eat well in the province of Genova
Six towns: what each is best for, what a home costs, and the catch. A square meter runs from €680 in Campo Ligure to €6,700 in Santa Margherita Ligure.
We've written about 1 of these 6. From the 1,000 towns picked by Peter Benei.
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Ligurian cooking in the province of Genova runs on a short list of things done with unreasonable care: focaccia with a wet, salted crust, sheets of soft cheese sealed between dough and blistered in a wood oven, anchovies from the Golfo Paradiso, pesto ground with basil grown on terraces above the sea. The landscape does the rest of the work. Slate and painted stucco houses stack up against cliffs, the vegetable gardens climb behind them, and the fishing boats come in early enough that lunch is a matter of what the water gave up that morning. Spring and early autumn are the good months, when the coastal path is walkable and the trattorie are open without a queue at the door.
Most people arriving in the region eat in Genoa itself, which is fair enough, because the caruggi of the old city hold some of the best food in northern Italy and the pesto argument can reasonably be settled there. The result is that the same streets absorb the cruise arrivals, the day trippers off the train and everyone attempting the Cinque Terre in a single afternoon. Tables get booked out, service gets fast, and the focaccia becomes something you eat standing up while moving.
The coast and the valleys do not stop at the city limits. The same slate, the same basil terraces and the same ovens continue east along the gulf and inland up the Stura and the Entella, and that is where these towns sit, each with a kitchen a serious guide has thought worth naming. Fewer people go, and the ones who do tend to sit down for the whole afternoon.
Of the 13 communes we have mapped in the province of Genova, 10 qualify as towns that eat well: a national or international dining guide has named a table in each. This list is the hidden ones, 7 in all. The smallest, Portofino, has 351 residents.
Elsewhere in the catalogue: The best towns you can reach by train that eat well in the province of Genova and The best hidden coastal towns in the province of Genova.
All the towns within a day trip: day trips from Genoa.
1. Campo Ligure
Best for a walk through the old town. It is on the list of Italy's most beautiful villages.
41 min from Genoa · homes €680 to €1,000 a m² in the center · 2,796 people
Why visit Campo Ligure
Campo Ligure sits on the right bank of the Stura at 342 meters, twenty-five kilometers north of Genoa where the Apennines start to climb. The Spinola family took the fief in the thirteenth century and built the hexagonal castle on the hill above the village; the cylindrical tower is more than twenty-two meters tall and six across.
The first filigree workshop opened in 1884. Within a generation Campo Ligure had become the national center for the craft, fine gold and silver threads twisted with pliers called bruscelle and welded under a torch.
It remains the only working filigree center in Italy. The Museo della Filigrana, founded in 1984 around the Pietro Carlo Bosio collection, holds filigree work from across the world.
A medieval stone bridge over the Stura, originally ninth-century and rebuilt several times from the eighteenth century onward, anchors the lower end of the borgo.
Caccia C'à Bugge is listed in Slow Food's Osterie d'Italia and Gambero Rosso.
What to see in Campo Ligure
- Castello Spinola. Twelfth and thirteenth-century hexagonal fortress on the hill above the village, cylindrical tower 22 meters tall, residence of the Spinola fief.
- Museo della Filigrana Pietro Carlo Bosio. Founded 1984 around the Bosio collection, filigree work from across the world, the only museum of its kind in Italy.
- Ponte medievale sullo Stura. Stone bridge over the Stura with ninth-century origins, rebuilt several times from the eighteenth century, marks the southern entrance to the borgo.
How to get to Campo Ligure
It has its own railway station. Genoa is about 41 min away by road. The full route from Genoa.
Our tip
May through October is the working window: the Stura runs clear, the trail network up into the Parco del Beigua opens, the filigree workshops keep their doors open for visitors. The Mostra della Filigrana in late August is the year's main draw, three days of open studios and demonstrations. July and August can touch 30 degrees in the valley but the 342-meter elevation keeps evenings cool.
2. Bogliasco
Best for a day out from Genoa. It is 16 min by car.
16 min from Genoa · homes €2,650 to €3,900 a m² in the center · 4,298 people
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 center 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.
Il Bistrotto is listed in Gambero Rosso.
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
It has its own railway station. Genoa is about 16 min away by road. The full route from Genoa.
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.
3. Santa Margherita Ligure
Best for a swim. The comune's beach holds a Blue Flag.
40 min from Genoa · homes €3,200 to €6,700 a m² in the center · 8,323 people
Why visit Santa Margherita Ligure
Santa Margherita Ligure sits on the inner curve of the Tigullio gulf, 35 kilometers southeast of Genova, between Rapallo and Portofino. The two medieval burghs of Pescino and Corte were unified by Napoleonic decree in 1812 as Porto Napoleone, then joined again in 1818 under the Kingdom of Sardinia as Santa Margherita di Rapallo.
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.
Taverna Colombo (Locali Storici), Langosteria Paraggi (MICHELIN), ö Magazín In Spiaggia (Gambero Rosso) and 1 more place are listed in food guides.
The catch: Homes in the center cost up to €6,700 a m².
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
It has its own railway station. Genoa is about 40 min away by road. The full route from Genoa.
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.
4. Camogli
Best for everyday life on foot. Eight of the ten everyday services we look for are mapped within 500 meters of the center.
33 min from Genoa · homes €4,100 to €6,100 a m² in the center · 4,882 people
Written about. No. 24. Read the letter →
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.
La Loggia is listed in Gambero Rosso.
The catch: Homes in the center cost up to €6,100 a m².
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
It has its own railway station. Genoa is about 33 min away by road. The full route from Genoa.
✷ We have written about Camogli
“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 Camogli →Tigullio Roadtrip | Four Versions of the Same Liguria
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.
5. Recco
Best for a swim. The comune's beach holds a Blue Flag.
25 min from Genoa · homes €2,100 to €3,100 a m² in the center · 9,279 people
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.
Da ö Vittorio (MICHELIN and Locali Storici) and Manuelina (MICHELIN and Locali Storici) are listed in food guides.
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
It has its own railway station. Genoa is about 25 min away by road. The full route from Genoa.
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.
6. Lavagna
Best for olive oil. It belongs to the national association of olive oil towns.
44 min from Genoa · homes €2,300 to €3,400 a m² in the center · 12,367 people
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.
Impronta d'Acqua (MICHELIN and Gambero Rosso), Raieü (MICHELIN and Slow Food), Aria (MICHELIN and Gambero Rosso) and 1 more place are listed in food guides.
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
It has its own railway station. Genoa is about 44 min away by road. The full route from Genoa.
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.
If you only pick one
Which town is yours
One town for each kind of trip, and the reason in a line.
Without a car
Lavagna
The train stops in the commune, so you can arrive and leave without a car.
For everyday life on foot
Recco
Nine of the ten everyday services we look for, from a grocer to a pharmacy, are on the map within 500 meters of the center.
For a short trip
Bogliasco
16 min by car from Genoa, the shortest drive from a city on this list.
For a small town
Campo Ligure
2,796 people, the smallest town on this list.
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