Italy
Liguria in September: the coast after August
Seven nights of regional trains, focaccia before nine o’clock and one path that was closed for reasons the man at the gate could not give.
We spent the middle of September on the Ligurian coast, four nights in Camogli and three in Sestri Levante, and never rented a car. The regional trains between Genoa and La Spezia stop everywhere, cost €3 to €5 for the short hops and run about every half hour; Trenitalia has the times, and the machines on the platforms take cards. August had gone, but September on this coast is not empty. It is just bearable.
Camogli
Our room in Camogli was €92 a night in a guesthouse up a lane behind the sea wall, with a window onto someone’s laundry rather than the water. We did not mind. The bakery near the station pulls the plain focaccia out of the oven just before nine and by half past it is gone, so we were in the queue at ten to. Recco is one stop away and famous for focaccia col formaggio, thin as paper with cheese in the middle; a slice was €6 and neither of us finished it.
The path from Camogli to San Fruttuoso took us two and a half hours with stops: pine woods, a great many steps, and a view of the whole Portofino headland. The abbey at the bottom is lovely and the café next to it charges €4 for a small bottle of water. We took the boat back, sunburnt on one side only.
A day in the Cinque Terre
From Sestri Levante it is twenty-five minutes to Monterosso. The walk to Vernazza is the one everyone does, and mid-September was busy but not unkind: a line of people on the steps and a few of them in sandals. A day card with the trains included was close to €20. The middle sections of the coast path were closed “for works” with no date on the sign, and the man at the gate shrugged in a way that suggested he had been asked before. In Vernazza we ate anchovies with lemon at a stand-up counter for €7 and sat on the harbour wall with our feet over the water.
Swimming
The sea was still about 23 degrees and every beach we found was pebbles, so bring shoes. In Sestri Levante a lounger and umbrella on the Baia delle Favole was €25; we sat on the free stretch near the pier, with the same view and the same pebbles. Portofino we did on a short afternoon from Santa Margherita and left quickly, because a coffee on the harbour was €7.
In mid-September rooms were €85 to €95; in August, the owners told us, it is nearly double. The towns are quiet enough in the evening that you can hear the sea hit the wall under the restaurants. That is what we came for, and one day we would like to see it in November, when the boats stop.