Riviera di Levante (Riviera of the rising sun), a stretch of coast stretching east of Genoa, not suitable for a quiet beach holiday. Wanting to get a tan at least a little, in the more popular summer resorts you have to fight hard for just a piece of a pebble beach or a piece of concrete pier , and many pop up in waterfront cafes and restaurants, the posers eager to attract the attention of themselves. In a series of ports, which used to be sustained by sea voyages, fishing and coral mining, from 30 tourism has flourished for years.
The coast is beautiful and still wild here and there, but the old sense of distance from the world has inevitably disappeared with the crowds of holidaymakers. Only after accepting the thought, that everywhere, in all former fishing ports, you will have many traveling companions, you can appreciate the attractions, that this region offers.
In addition to the holiday resorts, you can admire steep cliffs and coves covered with pine and olive trees, which are best seen from the trails to the top of Monte Portofino. You pass it when you drive to San Fruttuoso, a little east of Genoa.
In the nearby port towns of Camogli and Santa Margherita Ligure, balustrades and shutters decorated with illusionist paintings, are a favorite subject of quasi-artistic postcard photographs, and further south, Rapallo and Sestri Levante have a rich nightlife.
Behind Sestri, the road deviates slightly from the coast passing five, squeezed into a narrow strip of land between the shoreline and sharp cliffs, villages known as Cinque Terre, three of which can only be reached by boat or train. The main Genoa-La Spezia railway line then continues into a series of tunnels, emerging only around the wide gulf of Golfo di Spezia. Shipbuilding center and seaport, Spice, it is connected by train and bus lines to Tuscany and Parma beyond the Apennines, and with ferry lines with Bastia in Corsica.
RECCO, rebuilt after almost total destruction by Allied bombing in the year 1944, it is not an interesting city, unless one takes into account the multi-level collision-free intersection of gray concrete towering above it. People mainly come here, to eat, because within a few kilometers from the city there are some of the best restaurants in the province. They specialize in. w cheese foccaccia (a better variety of foccaccia, served with cheese), trofie (twisted pasta with pestó) i pansoti (dumplings with spinach topped with peanut sauce).
Wealthier customers can order a table in the Manuelina restaurant, Via Roma 30 (•0185/74128; closed. Wed), located on the main road north of the intersection. The neighboring Foccaceria is a bit cheaper, while the Da-8 Vittorió, Via Roma 160 (•0185/74029; closed. Wed) rivals Manuelina both in terms of quality, as well as prices (Ok. 45000 L per person). For a smaller dish, you can visit the display tables at the foot of the La Baracchetta cliff (closed. wt.) lub do Pizzeria del Monte, Via Marconi 11 (near the intersection) specializing in pasta e carne.
Camogli
CAMOGLI, located a bit deeper into the peninsula than Recco, it was in the words of Dickens, who visited the town in a year 1884 "The most salty one, the wildest, the most abundant in pirates possible places in the world ". Even though the city now lives more from tourism than from the sea, decaying arcades in the port area and dark stairs, leading up into the city center among the residential houses, they still 'smell like fish, algae and old ropes ". In its heyday, Camogli was an important seaport and a sort of navigator training center. It also had a fleet 700 ships, which was more numerous than the Genoese fleet and once happened, that she escorted Napoleon's fleet. City Name, short for Casa Moglie (House of Wives), comes from the times, when sea voyages lasted for years and in the absence of men, the port was ruled by women. In the age of the steamboats, the Camogli began to decline, from which the city was saved by the hiring in the years 30. Of the nineteenth century of local seafarers through France to the conquest of Algeria and the creation of the first maritime insurance company here. Today, the port serves as a dock for ferries to San Fruttuoso, Portofino i Santa Margherita.
Situated on the opposite side of the bay, Punta Chiappa used to be, according to travel guides, famous for "the sea of ever-changing color", but today it's just dirty with garbage in places, thrown out of yachts moored in the bay. However, tan enthusiasts still bask on the flat rocks, and the sea is thick with bathers. This is also where the routes traversing Monte Portofino begin (you can get here by ferry or on foot from the Church of San Rocco on the edge of Camogli). It takes three hours to walk from Punta Chiappa to San Fruttuoso along the captivating and wild bluffs, and five hours to Portofino.
You can look for accommodation in La Camogliese, Garibaldi Street 55 (*0185/771402; rooms 35 000 L) or in the slightly cheaper Augusta Hotel, Via P. Schiaffino 100 (»0185/770592; on the edge of town, when you go by bus). Most of the restaurants on the seafront are expensive, or bad. Of these, only the Da Fallu cafe serving sea dishes stands out. It is located by the Salita Priaro stairs, upstream from the port. A few meters away, on the main road in a building resembling a miniature garage from the years 50. , there is a fruit and vegetable market every day. The best of the seaside eateries is Revello: to foccaccia and camogliese served straight from the oven, the wonderful "puff" cakes are lined up in long lines.
On the second Sunday of May, the Sagra del Pesce festival takes place in the city, which boils down to installing a large fryer in the port. Giving away fish for free, the inhabitants want to celebrate the great wealth of the sea and express their hope for a similar harvest of fish in the next year. Recently, this holiday was questioned by the authorities, who accused the fishermen of unfairly thawing fish at sea and selling them in the port as fresh, and also drew attention to the risk of poisoning, possible when eating fish fried in a gigantic pan. The Stella Maris procession that takes place on the first Sunday in August is less controversial. It is a boat parade, which, after darkness fell, set off in large numbers to Punta Chiappa, in order to secure the favor of the gods of the sea.