Portofino and the Tigullio
A headland of Mediterranean scrub, an abbey reachable only from the sea and the most photographed gulf in Liguria.
The Portofino headland is a six-hundred-metre mountain walking into the sea, separating Camogli from the gulf of Tigullio. It is a nature park: above are paths through the scrub and the pines, below a protected marine area with one of the best-known dives in Italy.
Portofino is a village of four hundred people inside a perfect cove, with coloured houses pressed round the little square. It is also one of the most expensive places in Europe, and in summer you arrive only by boat or on foot: the road from Santa Margherita runs one way at a time and the car park costs as much as a meal.
The rest of the gulf
Santa Margherita and Rapallo are the towns of the Tigullio, with their promenades and harbours; Chiavari has arcades and a medieval centre; Sestri Levante sits on an isthmus between two bays, the Bay of Fables and the Bay of Silence, and has the best beaches on this stretch. The campsites are mostly here and towards Lavagna.
San Fruttuoso
In the most enclosed cove of the headland stands a tenth-century abbey with no roads: you reach it by ferry from Camogli, Portofino or Santa Margherita, or on foot in two hours of path. In front of it, seventeen metres down, is the statue of the Christ of the Abyss.