Four trips, and three of them are on foot
In Liguria the good places are often where the car does not reach.
Many of the places worth seeing in Liguria have no road, or have one you would rather not take. These four itineraries take that into account: you leave the vehicle and carry on by foot, by train or by boat.
The villages of the Val Nervia
Behind Ventimiglia you climb a narrow valley and find three villages in a row: Dolceacqua with the humpbacked bridge Monet painted and the Doria castle above it, Apricale hanging on the slope, Pigna with its concentric lanes. It takes half a day and the road is narrow but drivable. Higher up, at Triora, is the village of the sixteenth-century witch trials.
The Cinque Terre on foot
The Sentiero Azzurro links the five villages high above the sea. Some sections are often closed by landslides and it is worth checking first; when they are open, the stage between Vernazza and Monterosso is the finest. You need the park card, you pay for it, and in exchange you walk inside the terraces instead of queueing on the main road.
San Fruttuoso, which can only be reached by boat
The abbey sits in a cove of the Portofino headland and has no roads: you reach it on foot from Camogli in two hours, or by ferry. It is one of the few places in Italy where the way of arriving is part of the visit.
Genoa in a day
The old centre of Genoa is the largest in Europe and is walked, through the carrugi. The classic round takes in Via Garibaldi with its Rolli palaces, the cathedral of San Lorenzo, the old port and the aquarium. You keep the vehicle out of it: arrive by train or park on the edge.