Genoa: Monthly Regional Food Market [460]
Genoa is one of the great food cities of Italy, and now it has begun hosting a monthly artisanal specialty food market featuring local Ligurian products and those of the many regions of Italy. You’ll find everything from Ligurian basil to taralli savory biscuits from Puglia, plus cheese and mortadella from Emilia, and porchetta (spit-roasted pork) from central Italy.
Christopher Columbus and Genoa [1483]
Every Day is Columbus Day in Liguria. Columbus was from Genoa.
Columbus’s journey was a feat of navigation, a demonstration not only of foolhardy confidence – the intrepid sea captain was sailing in the wrong direction, after all, if he hoped to reach India – but also of fearless entrepreneurialism. The goal was to find a short, safe passage toward riches.
Rapallo: A Giant Outdoor Chessboard [301]
Rapallo is a handsome seaside town set in a series of curving bays. It’s backed by the 1,900-foot-tall Montallegro, a mountain refuge with a historically important and also stunningly beautiful Baroque sanctuary.
Rapallo was among the Italian Riviera’s first tourist resorts. Early on it drew European and Russian aristocrats and American nouveaux riches. Frederich Nietzsche wrote the bulk of his masterpiece Thus Spake Zarathustra while staying in Rapallo and visiting Montallegro, among other nearby sites.
Hiking the Cinque Terre: Riomaggiore to Montenero [849]
One of my favorite adventuresome trails in the Cinque Terre runs uphill at an impressive angle for 45 minutes starting at Riomaggiore, the southernmost of the Cinque Terre villages. It leads to the monastery of the Madonna di Montenero.
Hiking the Cinque Terre: Montenero to Volastra, Corniglia [697]
This is one of the top walks in the Cinque Terre.
Above the village of Manarola the same ancient hiking trail that links Riomaggiore to La Madonna di Montenero changes directions and cuts midway across the slope to reach the villages of Volastra and Corniglia.
Camogli: Swimming Weather in Late September [250]
Swimming on the Italian Riviera in September is ideal, and Camogli is a fine place to do it.