Liguria Travel Guide: Towns, Beaches and Family Tips

Sunshine, snorkeling, and seaside snacks, what more could you want? In this episode, we’re diving into our favorite experiences along the Ligurian coast. From biking the tunnels between Levanto and Bonassola to walking to Portofino from Santa Margherita and indulging in unforgettable meals in Monterosso and beyond. It’s our perfect mix of relaxation and adventure. Plus, we share where we stayed (hello, Lido Palace Hotel) and what made this Italian Riviera trip so good we keep going back.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome back. I'm Lisa and I'm Erin. And this is the Getaways Podcast. I'm excited to continue with summer because we need a little sunshine.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Yes, we do. It's raining again and cold.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

And we're at the end of May. I know. And we had like a few days, almost a week, of almost hot weather. And then warm weather.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Let's not go crazy.

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And then yesterday it all went back to Netherlands weather.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Yeah, and it's windy and it's chilly and it's pouring. So bring on the summer talk. So today we're going to talk about an coastal region of Italy, Ligoria, which was one of the first places we went to the sea.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

It is. It is, yeah. And the rocky beach. I've got the pictures, I'll put them on the internet, dealing with such a little peanut.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Yeah. And but they call the area the Italian Riviera. And it is really special. I mean, it's there's fishing villages, there's beaches, there's cliffs, there's rock beaches, there's movement in the water, um, in a lot of places, like where we went that first time. Yeah. And um, and obviously delicious food. Amazing food. Yeah, and crazy seafood. Um, but probably the place that everybody knows the most in Lingoria is the Cinquiteri area.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Chinquateri or Portofino.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

You know why I know Portofino? Why? One of my favorite books and movies of all time, Enchanted April, takes place in Portofino. This the group, the I think it's four women that they rent a place on the hills in Portofino. And that book made me want to go to the south of France from the time that I first read it. And I don't even know how I mean I was little. Well, I'm gonna have to watch that movie. I mean, it was yeah, it it changed my life. And then when I nanied in Monaco, I kept thinking, oh, I'm so close now. I have to go, but I never went until we went together from Florence.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Portofino is a tiny, tiny town.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Yeah, tiny, but so picturesque and so just charming. It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

So something about Ligoria, my favorite thing about Ligoria, and we'll dig more into it in a in a second, but that's Lisa's. Mine is it's where Facasha was born.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

And I love a good facasha.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Um, yeah, that's that's more you than me, but um, but it definitely, you know, there will be whole bakeries that just serve facasha. It's pretty crazy, and all different flavors and kinds from olive to just salt and all sorts of craziness.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

So we're gonna cover the places in Ligoria that we've been. Um there's we still have more to explore, but here's where we've been.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

You want to start with Chinquatere?

SPEAKER_02 2:47

We went to Chinquatere first. Okay, so let's start with Chinquatere. The first time we went, we stayed in an Airbnb kind of near Santa Margarita, which we'll get to because we love that town. And we drove down to Chinquatere, which it's not an easy place to access with the car because all of Chinquatere, all five villages are car free. So you literally have to park kind of on the outskirts of whatever town you're going to, and then there's a train that goes between all five cities, or you can hike. It's a beautiful hike. I haven't done the hike. You have, haven't you?

SPEAKER_01 3:17

I've done part of it, yeah. Um, but yeah, it is definitely somewhere that it's walking only in the actual five villages, and then train or boat. There's there's no other option to get between them once you get down.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

And they are villages.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Yeah.

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And what we haven't done is we haven't taken a boat to see it from the water side, which you have? Yeah, I did it with Debbie and Danny with my sister and brother-in-law. Well, Lisa's got more to say about Chinquateri than me because she's been more than I have. I'm cooler.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Um, when my sister and brother-in-law came to visit when we were in Florence the first year, we took a bus to Chinquateri, which was only like a two-hour, I think, from Florence, two-hour drive/slash bus. Yeah. And then they parked us at the top. And we did that on purpose because we well, I didn't want to have to deal with the logistics because it is hard, especially. And we went in April, where so it was fairly crowded, to deal with parking and deal with all of the logistics. It was just easier to have them come and drop us off at the top, and then we climbed down and then took visited each of the, I think we I think we did four of the villages. And then on the last one, we took a boat that brought us all the way back to where we started, and then we climbed back up and got back on the bus and went back to Florence. So we kind of got the best of all worlds because we got to see them from walking and from above, and then along the coast from the boat too. It was pretty, it was a pretty good trip.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Sounds nice. Was it crowded?

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Like I said, it was April, so it was certainly not the way it was when Katie and I were there in August. July. We were there in July, we're there for July 4th. Um, but it was getting there.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

It was.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Because it was crowded when we went for your birthday.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Which we'll get to because that's on the Bonusola.

unknown 5:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Bonosala. Bonosala.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

But yeah, so all the little villages sort of have their own vibe, a little bit different. They each have like their own beaches or kind of not a wharf, it's something like a bay, I guess, where boats can pull in where the dock is. Um, like where we had that lobster lunch right on the water. There was no beach there, but you could pull your boat in.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Yeah, it's just kind of a little shallowish and it's got places to tie up, but it's not, it's not a port. It's not, there's not really docks.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, I think it's Monterosso where Katie and I went and swam there, but and there was, you know, services. You could rent an umbrella and a bed, and you know, there was kind of a more expansive beach than some of the other villages.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Well, Monterrosso is also where we had your birthday lunch. Yeah. Which it's on the website, but it was a place called Cantina di Milky, and it was delicious. Everywhere, like every restaurant is so good and so picturesque, and it's just very seafood forward.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

But again, it's like the the vibe that we've talked about for big cities too. You kind of want to get off because all of the villages have like one kind of main road and that has all the souvenir shops and all the you know, sort of more touristy things. So if you kind of go in one of the outskirts or shoot out from one of the little side streets, you kind of have a better shot of a little bit more authentic. And that's exactly what happened with Mickey. What's it called? Milky. Milky. Because this was kind of like underground. Like you kind of had to know about it.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

Yeah, but I made reservations for that.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I know. But I mean it wasn't it was off the beaten path. It wasn't like on the main thoroughfare.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Yeah, we I found that through Girl in Florence.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Website, Georgette, which you should follow her for Florence adventures, but that's that's how we also found Bono Bonosola. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

I don't ever say it right. Um, well, it took us a long time, but we'll just pretend like we know it. Um so yeah, but I mean Chinquatere is so the like quintessential, I mean, everybody knows the picture, right? When you see it. I mean, it's the colorful buildings, it's the little like you know, fishing village vibe, but it's quite touristy.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

And would you suggest people try to stay in Chinquatere? No.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

No, but I mean, like I said, it's a kind of a catch-22 because it's also not easy to get in and out, but I certainly wouldn't want to get in and out with luggage. No, that's true. No, that's very true. I mean, hiking down that with luggage and then back up.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

No, yeah, I mean, you're better off to take a train if you're gonna stay there, but you're still But then you still have to go up to get to your hotel. Yeah, it's definitely more of a day trip vibe, I feel like.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Yeah, I think so. And I think you stay, you know, in one of the bigger cities nearby, or you do full-blown day trip and just go and get in and get out. But that's that is pushing it a little bit because there is a lot to see.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Well, if you stayed in Genoa, well, that's what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Yeah, and then you could do the aquarium and do all that stuff too.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Genoa's a lovely big city, it's in Ligoria, it's the big city of Ligoria, and you could take the train in from Genoa in probably like 15-20 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Yeah, and La Spezia too is isn't that a pretty it's a pretty decent sized city that you could stay in and it's close.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

You still have to kind of drive down into it.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Yeah, but I think that's the nature of yeah, yeah. So Chinquitere, big thumbs up. I would highly recommend first of all, you have to be wearing like proper walking shoes because it's steep and definitely worth seeing, but off season's best, and just beware that there could be crowds because it can get very, very crowded in summer.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Yeah, and just just below south of Chinquateri's La Spezia, which we was talking about, and then there's a little town called La Ricci, and that's the first beach we went to in Ligoria.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yeah, which was a lovely beach. Amazing, yeah. Yeah. Um, all right, so Santa Margarita.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Yeah, so we stayed in an Airbnb and explored Chinquater, and we also explored Santa Margarita for the first time. And we stayed in this Airbnb. I tried to find it so I could put it on the website, but I don't think it's listed anymore. It was three units, three like separate houses with a pool. It was really nice.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

And a big property. Yeah, a huge property. It was up in the hills, it was a drive because we had cash then, so I could just walk him around the property because it was huge.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Yeah, it was nice. We spent a couple days exploring Santa Margarita, which we love.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Yeah. No, it's a very cute, I mean, it's a beach town, but it has sort of all that you could want. Like there's a really lovely walk between there and Portofino. There's great restaurants right on the um like main avenue that goes along the sea. And we had dinner there a few times, and it was great every time. And yeah, just a really kind of cool little city to kick around.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Yeah. We loved it so much that we went back again. Um, because we always joked that we like to pre-vacation before vacations. And so I was packing that's no joke, but I was packing on our first summer of after living in Europe for a year, and Dylan and I were going back to America for a month, and so we decided to take a weekend in Santa Margarita and we booked, I don't even know why we booked this suite, like it wasn't expensive, was it? One of our treat yourself days.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Well, yes, because it was early on in the in the living here, but um, but it was also we tried to like all stay in the same room, so it was just less expensive. So I don't know, but it was the best view ever.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Yeah, it was a great view. It was the hotel at Leto Palace, and they had great breakfast. They had a great bar downstairs. Uh yeah, I think it's called American Bar.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Um, but we also we bought, did we buy spritz?

SPEAKER_01 10:45

We bought at the grocery store, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

And we sat out on our we had a balcony that overlooked the ocean and we felt fancy. Yeah, so did Cash.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Remember, he would like spread out on one of the lounge chairs and was like, this is the life I was meant to live.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

But it was like it was we stayed in the hotel, we'd walk to like cute little restaurants for dinner. That time is when we walked all the way to Portofino. And my favorite thing about the walk to Portofino is it's so fancy that they put red carpet on the sidewalk all the way down to Portofino. Yeah. And Portofino is a lovely, lovely, tiny, just tiny, but I mean, you could literally have a meal there and a quick walk around and you've seen Portofino. But Portofino is the place to get your focaccia. Everywhere's good, but that one place in Portofino, I'll put it on the website, it was like to die for. I've never had focaccia that good. But yes, I would say go to Santa Margarita. I would say base yourself in Santa Margarita so you can explore Portofino and Chinquetere, all at the tip of your fingers, but still being a cute little beach town that's easy to it's accessible. You can drive down to it. Sure. That's what I would say. That sounds like a plan. And it's all rock beaches, so little pebbles, not tiny, but little pebbles. Um painful little pebbles. But the water's like so clear because there's no sand, like it was beautiful. Yeah.

unknown 12:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

All right.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

All right, my birthday.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

So for Lisa's birthday, we went to this little town called Bonosala, and we got an Airbnb, a two-bedroom Airbnb, and it also had a pool-out bed in the living room. So if there was more than four of you, there was room.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

But the one room had twin beds. Two beds. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Dylan and I had a room that had twin beds. And um, it had a a decent sized kitchen, a bathroom, a nice living room. It was probably a five-minute walk to the beach. Yeah. Uh it was up a hill, like all of it's up a hill. So uh we got a parking spot with it. It was it was a pretty decent deal, and it was right in town. So it was I loved it. I loved Bernoulsilla. We stayed there for like four days, I think, didn't we?

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Yeah, we did. And it is a really, really cool town. There's not a whole lot of Airbnbs there because we've tried to go back several times since. And like I said before, my friend Katie and I went um, I think two years later, and we stayed at an Airbnb like way, way, way up in the hill. Is that the one where the power kept going out? Yes. Okay, yes, every time we turned on the air conditioning, um, the power would go out. But um but which is not uncommon in Italy. Not at all, no. Well, air conditioning is a little uncommon, but the power going out is not. Um, but but there was that was a fun trip, but there's two things that stuck out in my head just as like words of warning. Can I guess? From can I guess? Water shoes. Yes, okay. So the first time we went down to the beach, we were wearing it was a hike. So we were wearing like, you know, our bathing suits, cover-ups, and then socks and tennis shoes to go down to the beach. And so, you know, we get down there and and like we just talked about the beach is little rocks, and we, you know, get ready to get in the water and we step on the rocks and we both just started screaming. I mean, it was like walking on hot coals, probably hotter than walking on hot coals. I mean, it was ridiculous. And we were like, Well, what the heck are we gonna do? How are we gonna get it down? So we ended up wearing our socks in the sea. And let me tell you, A, really not cute and B really not comfortable to have soggy socks on in the sea and try and keep them on. But um, but that's how hot the the ground was. So watershoes 100% because it is it is intolerable when it's the the heat of the summer. Then something else happened. On the way home, we were walking back, you know, and now you're you're you know, like it takes just a few minutes to warm up again after you start walking and get dry from the sea. So we're a little ways up, and it is brutal trying to climb this mountain to get back to our Airbnb. And um, you know, and I'm like, okay, I work out a lot. I'm like, I can do this, I'll be okay. And I like I just put my head down and keep putting one foot in front of the other. And I turn around and Katie is hitchhiking.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

And she got some very lovely family to pull over and put her and her like soggy body from her wet bathing suit and sweat into the car and drove her all the way up to our Airbnb and then she got in the car and came and got me. But it was uh it was it was quite a day.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Just to say that if you do go to Bonosola be or any of these towns, be aware of how far away you are from the beach and be prepared for the walk or hitchhike back up when you're ready to go home.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

So another thing we did in Bonosala is we rented bikes. They took all the train tunnels that were on the coast and they turned them into bike paths that go from Bonosola all the way to Chinquacher, I think.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Do they go the whole way? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

We only went to Levanto, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Well, and then I've been the other direction too, away from Levanto. Oh, yeah. Um, but I don't know. We went the other direction too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Because there's like little beaches that are only accessible through these tunnels. So it was it was fun. So we rented bikes in Levanto and rode all along the tunnels, and that was fun.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah, and the glory of the tunnels is they're really cool. So you get this like nice fresh breeze when you're going through the tunnels, um, which is a nice break from the uh summer heat, from the excruciating heat.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

And um, and then in Levanto, there's also cute. We had a good lunch there. We went to they have a really big market there.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

A really big market where they had everything from like chickens to clothes.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

So we did that. We went into Chinquateri, of course, for Lisa's birthday. We had some really good dinners in um Bonosela. I don't recall the names of the places we ate.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

I don't either, but it's a very, very small town. So you kind of whoever is open and will take you. This is a a place, this whole area is a place that's closed from like 12 30 to 4 usually too. Closed. So yeah. So be aware that like no grocery stores are open, restaurants that serve lunch will be open, but that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Yeah. Now I will say I do remember the name of one place, and it was Cafe Del Rose. Okay. That is where we got the those frozen lemoncellos. That's the first time we had. What are they called? It's like gelato and vod, it's like a gelato lemoncello.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

It is a frozen treat, and we went back over and over and over again. Yeah. They're so good.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

It's so good. Um and then I had a hike with cash every day that we all up to that church. Yeah. So you kind of walk out from Bonosla to the like street that goes along the sea and go to the right, and you can walk forever. And it's a really, really lovely walk, and there's lots of trails and stuff. But it ends at this peak where they called it a meditation center, but it or a prayer center. Um, but it's just this little sacred place that people go and do yoga or meditate or whatever, and you are surrounded. It's a peninsula, so you're surrounded by water, and it is so spectacularly beautiful and peaceful. Um, that that was one of my favorite things to do every morning. And nobody minded that I had a big pit bull there.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

But um there were not a lot of loose dogs, no, not at all, which is nice. But yeah, I would overall recommend. It's hard to find a place to stay in Bonosala. So if you can get there, I would go there. Yeah. Um, some things, some highlights uh for food is they have really good octopus salad. Pesto is from Genoa, so you can't go wrong with pesto, seafood pasta, mussels, caprese. What else would you say?

SPEAKER_01 18:56

I mean, I think that it's it's that pretty much covers like the big things. I mean, the the two things that you can't miss are the pesto and the faccia. Yeah. Um, but yeah, no, I mean, obviously the food's just really special.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

And we haven't spent a lot of time in Genoa. We did do the aquarium. It's definitely worth the drive to go to the aquarium or worth the trip.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Yeah. The city itself didn't really blow our skirts up. No, but we didn't really dive into the city, and it could, maybe. Um, but it's also where we take the ferry out quite often to go to the islands. Um, so we've kind of it was kind of just like a pass-through spot for us, but um, and there's some nice parks and stuff, but yeah, I don't know that um basing there and exploring there more than the aquarium. There's there's too much time that you'd want to spend there. Yeah. All right. So if you had one place to go in Ligoria, where would it be? Um Probably Benosila. Yeah, I think that would be I mean, as much as I love Portofino, it's it's just it's so small that I don't think Or you know, I could do Santa Margarita. I could do Binocola.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

You know what? I might say Santa Margarita because there's a lot it there not a lot more, but it's there's a little more stuff there other than the beach. Yeah. Because Benosola is it's the beach.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah. Oh, going back to Benosala too, when I was there with Katie, we did a boat ride and went all around the coast. So again, I mean, a boat ride's never a bad idea, but it was really kind of a nice way to see the whole that whole part of the coastline too. So that's a that's something to look for.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Yeah. Yeah. Would you go back like would that ever be on your list to spend the summer?

SPEAKER_01 20:36

To go back to Benosa or to look at it.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

To go back to Liguria. Well because we like to summer for three to four weeks.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

I mean, I prefer the islands or Pulia.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Or Croatia. Or Croatia, yeah. Um, but I wouldn't, you know, turn my nose up at it. Yeah. So that's Ligoria. It's definitely, you know, definitely worth a visit. Definitely a lot of options. Definitely a beach stop in the Chinquatere area is uh is definitely worth seeing.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

There's a blog post up with some links, some more information, some pictures.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Lots of pictures. And don't forget about our new podcast, The Haunted Getaways as well, which is available where you listen to this and all your podcasts. Yeah, we launched Thursday, our first two episodes. Short little bite-sized podcast about haunted places in Europe and mostly places that we've been or considered going. So it's kind of fun to see what all those are about. So check that out.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Yeah, it's got a very good receiving of listeners this week. So we're very happy.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Yeah. All right. So don't forget to like and subscribe and review. And thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

And check out our website at www.thetaways with the Z dot com. And we'll see you next week. Thank you. Ciao. Bye.