Best time
10 winter sea towns
Ten towns: what each is best for, what a home costs, and the catch. A square meter runs from €380 in Maruggio to €6,100 in Camogli.
Coastal comuni whose visiting calendar keeps December through February open. 10 towns shown, ranked by recognitions held.
Table no. 44 · Ranked by residents · 10 towns
The Mediterranean does not close in December, only its beach clubs do. A winter sea town offers the original quiet: storm watching, fish at half the summer price, walks on sand that shows only your footprints.
These coastal comuni keep December through February open in our calendar. Ranked by recognitions held.
- 1.Levanto5,050 residentsLa Spezia · LiguriaBest for walks in a national park. Part of the comune lies in a national park.1 h 12 min from Genoa · homes €3,100 to €4,400 a m² in the centerThe sixth Cinque Terre, a beach town and Cittaslow at the gateway of the national park, with a surf break and a striped Gothic church.
- 2.Maruggio5,158 residentsTaranto · PugliaBest for a wine weekend. It belongs to the national association of wine towns.44 min from Taranto · homes €380 to €570 a m² in the centerA fortified Borghi più Belli borgo on a low Ionian hill in Taranto province, built around a Knights of Malta commanderie that ran the Order's southern Italian affairs for six centuries.
- 3.Livorno153,154 residentsLivorno · TuscanyBest for a soak. The comune has thermal baths.homes €1,600 to €1,700 a m² in the centerTuscany's working port and Medici-planned 'New City', a 16th-century planned town built on reclaimed coast, with a Venice-like canal quarter, the Quattro Mori monument, and a 1.5-km seafront promenade that locals call the world's most beautiful balcony.
- 4.Diano7,763 residentsImperia · LiguriaBest for olive oil. It belongs to the national association of olive oil towns.1 h 34 min from Genoa · homes €2,400 to €4,500 a m² in the centerA twin destination on the Riviera dei Fiori: a medieval hilltop borgo above and a beach resort below, sharing one bay and one olive valley.
- 5.Menfi11,773 residentsAgrigento · SicilyBest for a long lunch. Food guides list three tables here.1 h 23 min from Palermo · homes €460 to €680 a m² in the centerSicily's triple-signal western coast town: 11,800 residents on a low ridge above 9 km of protected sand at Porto Palo, backed by cellars and olive groves that between them carry Italy's three major small-town quality marks.
- 6.
Vernazza697 residentsLa Spezia · LiguriaBest for a World Heritage site. UNESCO lists a site in the comune.1 h 41 min from Genoa · homes €3,800 to €5,600 a m² in the centerThe middle village of the coast, the only one with a natural harbor, buried under four meters of mud in October 2011.The catch: It has lost 19% of its people since 2015. - 7.Borgio Verezzi2,106 residentsSavona · LiguriaBest for a trip without a car. The train stops in the commune.1 h 9 min from Genoa · homes €3,000 to €4,800 a m² in the centerTwo villages joined under one comune in 1933: Borgio on the coast below, Verezzi on the pink-stone hill above.
- 8.Rocca Imperiale3,132 residentsCosenza · CalabriaBest for a walk through the old town. It is on the list of Italy's most beautiful villages.1 h 21 min from Taranto · homes €520 to €720 a m² in the centerFrederick II's Hohenstaufen fortress at the Calabria–Basilicata border, a Borgo più Bello d'Italia perched on a hill above the Ionian coast, with the castello at the summit and the locally-grown limone di Rocca Imperiale IGP scenting the orchards.
- 9.Celle Ligure4,795 residentsSavona · LiguriaBest 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 centerA Riviera di Ponente beach town with kilns firing since the 1600s.The catch: Homes in the center cost up to €5,300 a m².
- 10.
Camogli4,882 residentsGenova · LiguriaBest 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 centerA fishing village on the Golfo Paradiso whose nineteenth-century fleet of a thousand white sails made it Italy's third maritime power in the Mediterranean.The catch: Homes in the center cost up to €6,100 a m².
SIX OF THE TOP TEN ARE IN LIGURIA
We write letters from the Italian towns we visit: the town, what is worth eating there, and when to turn up. It is free, and you can leave whenever you like.