Italy · Liguria
The Italian Riviera, Portofino to Portovenere
Seven nights from Santa Margherita — Portofino, San Fruttuoso, the Cinque Terre from the water and the Gulf of Poets.
7 nights · Round trip from Santa Margherita Ligure
Liguria looks like the Amalfi Coast in photographs and behaves nothing like it. The shelf of coast is narrower, the mountains are directly behind, and the water goes deep within metres of the rock — which means fewer boats, better anchoring and a season that runs later into the autumn than anywhere else in the northern Mediterranean. The five villages everyone comes for have no harbour worth the name, so arriving by sea is not a luxury here. It is the only way in that does not involve the train.
The route, day by day
Day 1
Santa Margherita Ligure
Board in the working harbour rather than the famous one, which is the right decision and the one most weeks make. Provision, then the ten-minute run round to Paraggi for the first evening.
Day 2
Portofino
One bay, one square and about four hundred residents. Anchor off Paraggi and go in by tender — the harbour takes a few dozen boats and they are spoken for months ahead. The walk up to the Castello Brown is twenty minutes and empties the square out of your photographs.
Day 3
San Fruttuoso
On the seaward side of the promontory, inside the marine reserve: a tenth-century abbey on a pebble beach with no road to it. The bronze Christ stands on the seabed seventeen metres down off the point, and the crew will take anyone who wants to see it.
Day 4
Sestri Levante
South across the Gulf of Tigullio to the town with a bay on each side of its isthmus. A comfortable leg, a real town, and the last easy provisioning before the cliffs.
Day 5
Cinque Terre
Vernazza and Monterosso from the water, which is the way they were built to be seen. Anchor off and land by tender at one of them rather than all five — they are small, steep and full by mid-morning, and the boat is what lets you leave when they fill.
Day 6
Portovenere
The better night at this end: a Genoese fortress, the black-and-white striped church of San Pietro on the headland, and Palmaria across a narrow channel. The Gulf of La Spezia behind it is the best all-weather refuge on this coast.
Day 7
Santa Margherita Ligure
North again along the cliffs, with a last anchorage at Punta Chiappa under the promontory if the hour allows.
Worth knowing
- No yacht is based in Liguria: the nearest base is Cala de' Medici in Tuscany, a day south, and everything else is positioned for your dates
- Portofino's harbour is tiny and booked far ahead — anchoring off Paraggi and going in by tender takes five minutes and costs nothing
- The Cinque Terre have no usable harbour: you anchor off and land by tender, which is the good way to arrive anyway
- Genoa and Pisa airports both serve the coast; Genoa is closer to Portofino, Pisa to Portovenere
- September and early October are reliably good here — the season runs later than it does further south
Where this route goes
Yachts that sail this route
Itineraries
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