The 10 prettiest small villages that eat well in Liguria

1. Framura

Best for a small town. 553 people live here.

59 min from Genoa · homes €2,650 to €3,900 a m² in the center · 553 people

Why visit Framura

Framura is not one village but five: Anzo on the water, Setta and Ravecca on the slope, Costa above them, and Castagnola at roughly 300 meters with views back down to the coast. The commune spans from the rocky shoreline to 845 meters inland on the ridge that separates the Cinque Terre coast from the Vara valley.

Byzantine settlers built the original circular watchtowers here against Saracen raids, three of them still standing on the coast and inland. The hamlets remained agricultural until the Genova-La Spezia railway tunneled through in the late nineteenth century, opening the commune to summer visitors.

The seafront below Anzo, reached by a converted railway tunnel turned cycle path, carries the Bandiera Blu, and the same path runs north toward Bonassola and Levanto. Framura is the quiet outlier on this coast: the closest Borghi più belli village to Monterosso al Mare without being in the Cinque Terre national park.

L'Agave is listed in the MICHELIN Guide and Gambero Rosso.

The catch: It has lost 15% of its people since 2015.

What to see in Framura

• Torri bizantine. Three surviving Byzantine watchtowers on the coast and ridge, built to defend the village from Saracen incursions.
• Castagnola. Highest of the five hamlets at around 300 meters, with views over the lower frazioni and the Riviera di Levante.
• Anzo waterfront. Coastal hamlet at sea level with the Bandiera Blu beach access, the lowest of Framura's five settlements.

How to get to Framura

It has its own railway station. Genoa is about 59 min away by road. The full route from Genoa.

Everything we know about Framura

2. Badalucco

Best for a slow weekend. The Touring Club gives it its orange flag for small inland towns.

2 h 2 min from Genoa · homes €1,000 to €1,450 a m² in the center · 1,087 people

Why visit Badalucco

Badalucco sits at 179 meters in the middle Valle Argentina, fifteen kilometers north of Imperia. The torrent that gives the valley its name runs in a wide bend below the village.

The site changed hands between Ligures and Rome in 181 BC, became a fief of the Counts of Ventimiglia, and passed to the Republic of Genova in 1259. The seventeenth century rebuilt the parish Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta e San Giorgio in full Baroque, with a square bell tower and a fifteenth-century polyptych attributed to Giovanni Canavesio.

The caruggi of stone houses are painted with contemporary murals and trompe-l'oeil, a more recent layer over the medieval shell. The Rundin bean, an indigenous variety grown on the terraces, is a Slow Food Presidium.

Stoccafisso alla badalucchese, stockfish stewed in tomato and olives, is the dish: the third Sunday of September brings the Stockfish Festival to the square.

Umami (MICHELIN and Gambero Rosso) and Cian de Bià (Slow Food) are listed in food guides.

What to see in Badalucco

• Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta e San Giorgio. Seventeenth-century Baroque parish church with a square bell tower, holding a fifteenth-century polyptych attributed to Giovanni Canavesio and a seventeenth-century wooden crucifix.
• Chiesa di San Niccolò. Hilltop church above the old village, on the site of a former noble castle that served as a lookout over the valley.
• Ponte sull'Argentina. Stone bridge across the torrent that wraps the village, connecting the centro storico to the valley road.

How to get to Badalucco

Genoa is about 2 h 2 min away by road.

Everything we know about Badalucco

3. Cipressa

Best for a small town. 1,201 people live here.

1 h 46 min from Genoa · homes €1,900 to €2,800 a m² in the center · 1,201 people

Why visit Cipressa

Cipressa sits at 232 meters on a ridge above the Ligurian Sea, ten kilometers west of Imperia. The ridge runs inland from the coast road, and the village occupies its high point, with the frazione of Lingueglietta set further west on the same line of hills, its medieval street plan still intact and separate in character from the centro storico below.

Above the village, a tower built against Saracen raids stands as one signal point in a chain that once ran the length of the coast from Ventimiglia to Genova, the raids themselves having shaped settlement patterns here through the late Middle Ages: villages set back and up from the shore, watch points on the high ground. In Lingueglietta the same pressure produced a church converted into a fortified shelter, merlons added to its roofline when the danger from the sea increased.

Below the ridge, the valley is olive country, Taggiasca terraces dropping from the high ground to the coast road. The result is a village whose defensive geography, built to keep distance from the water, now sits directly above a road cut for the opposite purpose: getting from the water to the ridge as fast as possible.

Ristorante Da U Titti is listed in Gambero Rosso.

What to see in Cipressa

• Torre Gallinara. Cylindrical form on the ridge above the village, a viewpoint across the Riviera dei Fiori from the walkway that circles its base.
• Chiesa Fortezza di San Pietro. Proto-Romanesque church in Lingueglietta, its roofline still carrying the merlons added when pirate raids intensified along the coast.
• Lingueglietta. Frazione on the western ridge with intact medieval streets, reached by the road that climbs away from the centro storico.

How to get to Cipressa

Genoa is about 1 h 46 min away by road.

Everything we know about Cipressa

4. Ameglia

1 h from Pisa · homes €1,350 to €2,900 a m² in the center · 4,262 people

Written about. No. 18. Read the letter →

Why visit Ameglia

The Magra was the Roman Macra, the eastern boundary of Liguria, and the hill at Ameglia stands on the border between Lunigiana and the Riviera where that river reaches the sea. Genoa bought part of the fief in 1141, the bishops took it back by 1284, and Castruccio Castracani of Lucca conquered it in 1321: a small fortress passed between larger powers for three and a half centuries before it settled into the shape it now has.

The marina at the river mouth is a separate world from the hill town above it. Where the castle and its concentric streets sit on the summit, the frazione at the water is a former fishing village, flat, tied to the tide and to summer moorings rather than to the bishops who once held the heights.

The two headlands south of that marina are reachable only by boat or steep footpath, cut off from the estuary settlement by their own geography rather than by distance. The town, in effect, is two places joined by the same river: a fortified height that answered to Luni and Genoa, and a working shoreline that answered to the sea.

Pescarino-Sapori di Terra e di Mare (MICHELIN) and LUV Ristorante (Gambero Rosso) are listed in food guides.

What to see in Ameglia

• Castello di Ameglia. Rebuilt in 1174 on a tenth-century footprint, episcopal fortress of the bishops of Luni, cylindrical keep above the Magra estuary.
• Centro storico di Ameglia. Concentric medieval streets around the castle, twelfth and thirteenth-century houses with stone arches and external staircases.
• Bocca di Magra. Old fishing village and marina at the river mouth, summer mooring for small craft, departure point for Punta Corvo by sea.

How to get to Ameglia

Pisa is about 1 h away by road.

Everything we know about Ameglia

5. Laigueglia

Best for a trip without a car. The train stops in the commune.

1 h 25 min from Genoa · homes €3,500 to €5,200 a m² in the center · 1,678 people

Why visit Laigueglia

Laigueglia sits at six meters on the Riviera di Ponente, sheltered between the two headlands that frame the bay. The name comes from Aquilia, a reference to the Roman eagle standards, and the village grew from a settlement of fishermen who came over from neighboring Andora.

Genoa bought the borough in 1609. Through the seventeenth century the economy ran on shipbuilding and the coral trade, which drew Catalan fishermen to settle in numbers and left behind the Baroque churches that anchor the centro storico today: the parish church with its curved front, and the confraternity oratory with its carved choir and Piola altarpiece.

Behind the beach, the fishermen's grid still reads as caruggi, small squares opening to the sea, houses in pale violet and ochre, the seafront watchtowers standing at the edge where the town once kept watch for raiders by sea. What the coral money built, the town has simply gone on living inside.

Savô is listed in the MICHELIN Guide and Gambero Rosso.

The catch: Homes in the center cost up to €5,200 a m².

What to see in Laigueglia

• Chiesa di San Matteo. The curved façade fronts a Baroque interior where the three altarpieces hang alongside furnishings paid for in the coral years, when the parish stood as the visible return on the fishery's money.
• Oratorio di Santa Maria Maddalena. 1616 oratory of the Confraternita dei Disciplinanti, with a carved wooden choir and an altarpiece by Domenico Piola.
• Centro storico. Fishermen's grid of caruggi behind the beachfront, with houses painted in the pale lilac and ochre traditional to the Ponente coast.

How to get to Laigueglia

It has its own railway station. Genoa is about 1 h 25 min away by road. The full route from Genoa.

Everything we know about Laigueglia

6. Borgio Verezzi

Best for a swim. The comune's beach holds a Blue Flag.

1 h 9 min from Genoa · homes €3,000 to €4,800 a m² in the center · 2,106 people

Why visit Borgio Verezzi

Borgio Verezzi is two settlements stitched together in 1933 under a single comune in the province of Savona. Borgio sits on the coast at the mouth of the Bottassano stream.

Verezzi rises 200 meters up the Orera hill above it, four old boroughs of stone houses in the warm-pink local rock: Piazza, Roccaro, Crosa, and Poggio, each a cluster rather than a single center. The beach below has held the Bandiera Blu without interruption since 1989.

The two halves of the town read as coast and height rather than old and new: the lower village handles the shoreline and the flag it has kept for decades, the upper village keeps its stone streets and its square turned toward the sea view. What the pairing adds up to is a comune built from two working parts, a beach town below and a hill village above, joined by administration in 1933 but still legible as separate places.

Doc is listed in the MICHELIN Guide.

What to see in Borgio Verezzi

• Grotte di Valdemino. Dated to 1933, the caves run through chambers where small underground lakes sit beneath the karst rock, the route winding through passages carved out over time.
• Piazza Sant'Agostino. Main square of Verezzi, framed by pink-stone houses with a view down to the sea. The village skyline serves as backdrop for the festival's summer stage.
• Chiesa di San Pietro Apostolo. Neoclassical parish church built in 1789 on the foundations of the medieval Burgum Albinganeum castle, with a white façade and two bell towers.

How to get to Borgio Verezzi

It has its own railway station. Genoa is about 1 h 9 min away by road. The full route from Genoa.

Everything we know about Borgio Verezzi

7. Noli

Best for a swim. The comune's beach holds a Blue Flag.

58 min from Genoa · homes €3,900 to €5,800 a m² in the center · 2,425 people

Why visit Noli

Noli sits at four meters on the Riviera di Ponente, fifty kilometers southwest of Genoa. From 1192 to 1797 it was an independent maritime republic, the fifth alongside Genova, Pisa, Venezia and Amalfi, holding the Capo Noli headland and a stretch of coast under its own flag and protected by alliance with Genoa.

The medieval walls still ring the centro storico, and the survivors of an original eight defensive towers still rise above the rooftops, including the Torre dei Quattro Canti and the Torre Papone. Outside the walls stands the Basilica di San Paragorio, an eleventh-century Romanesque church and one of the most important early medieval buildings in Liguria, with a wooden crucifix from the twelfth century and a bishop's throne carved into a single block of stone.

The Capo Noli cliffs end the bay to the south, with footpaths leading to grottos and a hermitage in the rock. The litoraneo carries the Bandiera Blu.

Il Vescovado is listed in the MICHELIN Guide and L'Espresso's restaurant guide.

The catch: Homes in the center cost up to €5,800 a m².

What to see in Noli

• Basilica di San Paragorio. Eleventh-century Romanesque church outside the walls, with a twelfth-century wooden crucifix and a bishop's throne carved from a single block.
• Torre dei Quattro Canti. Surviving medieval defensive tower inside the walled centro storico, one of eight that originally ringed the maritime republic.
• Torre Papone. Second medieval tower of the original defensive ring, still standing above the rooftops of the centro storico.

How to get to Noli

Genoa is about 58 min away by road. The full route from Genoa.

Everything we know about Noli

8. Campo Ligure

Best for a trip without a car. The train stops in the commune.

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.

Everything we know about Campo Ligure

9. Millesimo

Best for truffle season. It belongs to the national association of truffle towns.

1 h 13 min from Genoa · homes €670 to €1,000 a m² in the center · 3,335 people

Why visit Millesimo

Millesimo sits sixty kilometers inland from Genoa, over the Apennine watershed, in the upper reaches of the valley that gives the wider area its name. Enrico II Del Carretto turned the village into a fortified borgo in 1206, and his successors raised the castle later in the same century on the high ground above the settlement.

The town itself grew on the right bank of the river below that castle, its stone houses laid out in a triangle around the central piazza, with the fortified bridge carrying the crossing at the valley floor and the pilgrimage sanctuary set apart on the outskirts as the valley's separate religious focus. Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the combined Austro-Sardinian forces here on 13-14 April 1796, directing the campaign from the Del Carretto palazzo on the piazza that now serves as the town hall.

The pattern is one of a small defensive settlement whose river crossing, castle and family seat all sit within sight of each other, later put to use for a battle whose scale had nothing to do with the size of the place that hosted it.

Locanda dell'Angelo is listed in the MICHELIN Guide.

What to see in Millesimo

• Ponte della Gaietta. The old fortified body still spans the river below the village, narrow enough that its defensive purpose is obvious from either bank.
• Castello Del Carretto. Tower, keep and east wall stand above the village on the high ground, the stronghold that gave the marquis line command of the valley approach.
• Palazzo Del Carretto. The family palazzo faces the central piazza and now serves as the town hall, its rooms the setting for the 1796 headquarters rather than a battlefield relic.

How to get to Millesimo

Genoa is about 1 h 13 min away by road.

Everything we know about Millesimo

10. Celle Ligure

Best for a day out from Genoa. It is 40 min by car.

40 min from Genoa · homes €3,200 to €5,300 a m² in the center · 4,795 people

Why visit Celle Ligure

Celle Ligure sits at sea level on the Riviera di Ponente, ten kilometers west of Savona. The Aleramici marquises gave the lands to a Piedmontese monastery in 1014; the Genovese families took them over within a generation.

Pope Sixtus IV's family came from here. The lower town runs along the lungomare, with Piazza dei Mille at its center, while the centro storico sits behind it as a borgo of narrow caruggi, one of the Borghi più belli d'Italia.

A handful of artisan kilns still work these streets, ceramic shop signs marking the buildings where the trade continues. The pieces read as one place rather than several: a fishing and beach economy along the shore and a ceramic trade worked into the old quarter behind it.

Meta Ristorante is listed in the MICHELIN Guide.

The catch: Homes in the center cost up to €5,300 a m².

What to see in Celle Ligure

• Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo. Inside, a Via Crucis by Caminati hangs alongside ceramic stations by Emanuele Luzzati.
• Centro storico. Borgo of narrow caruggi behind the lungomare, with active artisan ceramic workshops and ceramic shop signs on the buildings themselves.
• Spiaggia di Celle Ligure. Sand and gravel beach that forms the basis of the town's summer economy, backed by the lungomare and the old town behind it.

How to get to Celle Ligure

It has its own railway station. Genoa is about 40 min away by road. The full route from Genoa.

Everything we know about Celle Ligure