Genoa → Lerici

01 Aquarium  · Family

Aquarium of Genoa

Acquario di Genova

At the Porto Antico in Genoa, the aquarium designed by Renzo Piano for the 1992 Expo remains the largest in Italy. Manatees, sharks, seals and penguins can be observed across several levels. In the cetacean pavilion, slip into the 15-metre glass tunnel and look up at the bellies of the dolphins.

02 Museum

Palazzo Rosso

Built between 1671 and 1677 for the Brignole Sale brothers, this Rolli palace on Via Garibaldi keeps their collections in their original setting. Gregorio De Ferrari and Domenico Piola painted four rooms of the seasons here, high points of the Genoese Baroque. Look out for Van Dyck's portraits of Anton Giulio Brignole Sale and Paolina Adorno.

03 Church

Genoa Cathedral

Cattedrale di San Lorenzo

In the heart of the old town, the Gothic façade is dressed in white and black bands above three French-style portals. In the right aisle, look for the replica of the British shell that pierced the roof on 9 February 1941 without exploding. Local legend long identified the Sacro Catino, an Islamic object of green glass, as the Grail.

04 Heritage

Boccadasse

At the end of Corso Italia, this old fishing village clusters its pastel houses around a small cove that the city has spared. In the fishermen's church, Sant'Antonio di Padova, model ships hang as ex-votos. Climb towards the headland of Santa Chiara, below Gino Coppedè's Castello Türcke, to follow the coast as far as Portofino.

05 Village

Camogli

Look at Camogli from its little harbour: its tall painted houses cling to a slope that drops almost sheer into the sea. Each façade grew through successive additions, often paid for by a long spell at sea. According to tradition, their colours and pale bands allowed sailors to pick out their homes on returning from the open sea.

06 Village

Portofino

In the hollow of a bay at the foot of the promontory, the village huddles its colourful façades around the harbour that Pliny called Portus Delphini. Higher up, San Giorgio, rebuilt after the bombing of the Second World War, watches over the anchorage. Climb up to the church to look down on this natural harbour that sheltered the Genoese navy.

07 Village

Santa Margherita Ligure

At the head of the Gulf of Tigullio, at the foot of the Portofino promontory, the town unites two long-rival villages, fishermen's Pescino and Corte, which Napoleon merged in 1812 under the name Porto Napoleone. The railway later brought elegant villas and grand hotels. Stroll along its two coves, between hills of olive trees and pines.

08 Village

Sestri Levante

The old town of Sestri Levante sits on a sandy isthmus between two bays, where a former island joined the mainland. On one side opens the Baia delle Favole and its small marina, on the other the narrower Baia del Silenzio. The Romans already kept a sea-facing trading post here, Segesta Tigulliorum.

09 Village

Levanto, Liguria

Levanto

Take the cycle path that runs through Levanto's old railway tunnels to Bonassola and Framura, with the sea bursting into view between tunnels. The town spreads across a valley of olive trees, vines and pines open to the sea. In the Middle Ages it lived from salt and a red marble, Rosso Levanto.

10 Village

Monterosso al Mare

Go through the short tunnel leading from Fegina beach to the old village and its castle with three round towers. The westernmost of the Cinque Terre has the widest beaches, and its Aurora tower rises sheer above the sea. In 1545, the corsair Dragut attacked the village and carried off its women and children.

11 Village

Vernazza

Recorded as early as 1080 as a naval base of the Obertenghi, Vernazza later received a galley shipyard from Genoa, the only one in the Cinque Terre. A bastion and watchtowers still keep an eye on the open sea, above tower-houses with carved doorways. Climb its stepped lanes, with Nostra Signora di Reggio, perched at 325 metres, in your sights.

12 Village

Corniglia

Climb the 377 steps of the Lardarina from the station to the only village of the Cinque Terre that does not touch the sea. Terraced vineyards hem it in, and amphorae that left from here have been unearthed at Pompeii. At the end of Via Fieschi, the Santa Maria terrace takes in the whole Cinque Terre coast at a glance.

13 Village

Manarola

Climb the main street, laid over the covered stream, up to the church of San Lorenzo from 1338 and its rose window in Carrara marble. Below, the colourful tower houses cling to the rocky spur above the sea. From Punta Bonfiglio the whole village is revealed, and at Christmas Mario Andreoli's nativity scene lights up the hillside.

14 Village

Riomaggiore

At the eastern end of the Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore stacks its Genoese tower-houses in parallel rows along the slope of the stream. Climb up to the castle, on the Campione spur that divides the village's two valleys. Above, the three peaks of Monte Verugola, which appear on the town's coat of arms, watch over the terraced vineyards.

15 Village

Porto Venere

Portovenere

At the end of the promontory that closes the Gulf of La Spezia to the west, Portovenere looks across a narrow strait to the island of Palmaria. Climb to the point, where the Gothic church of San Pietro took the place of a temple of Venus, the origin of the town's Latin name. Above, the Genoese castle towers over the tall, colourful houses of the harbour.

16 Village

Tellaro

Clinging to a rock in the Gulf of La Spezia, Tellaro has only one road for cars, which runs along the cliff from Lerici. In 1660, a lookout asleep in the bell tower of San Giorgio rang the bell as he fell and put pirates to flight; legend credits an octopus. Look for the Latin plaque that honours the animal.

17 Castle

Castello di Lerici

Spot this polygonal fortress from the quays, perched on its rock above the bay of Lerici and facing Portovenere. Genoa and Pisa fought over it in the 13th century, as it commanded the Gulf of La Spezia. A plaque on the gateway recalls the works of 1555, which gave it its present outline.