3 nights in Portovenere or Lerici or ???
 

My wife and I will be traveling in Tuscany and Liguria in October. We will be winging it with a rental car. We are planning on spending three nights in the area of Portovenere. Is one town preferable over the other or is there a better option? We have stayed in Levanto and Cinque Terre in the past but have not been to this area. Any opinions would be appreciated.

Are you there Bob?

Buon giorno !
We have stayed recently in Lerici but still prefer Portovenere as a base for that coast---we have stayed there 3 times over the past 25 years. It is just a more charming destination. It does not have the perfect hotel but does have 4 decent choices. Here are some pics from May of both:

http://www.slowphotos.com/photo/show...y.php?cat=4553

We stayed in Portovenere a couple of years ago and just loved it. I was glad we stayed at the Royal Sporting, away from the town crowds but a short walk to the town center. Can't compare to Lerici since we didn't go there.

We stayed in Lerici and just sent some friends there, I thought it was a charming town....we did a day trip to Portovenere, it's lovely too, I don't think you would go wrong with either choice.

I also stayed in Portovenere and loved it. I wasnt as impressed with Lerici, but only did that as a boat trip and stayed only a few hours there. Its a bit of a trek from La Spezia, but if you go early October (which is when I went) you can get the boat to the Cinque Terre. The Royal Sporting did look nice, I stayed at the Belvedere and that was fine.

Bob, I so enjoyed your photos this morning! Lovely start to the day. Thanks for posting.

It really depends on what you want you want to do and when in October you plan to be traveling. If you are thinking that you will go to Portovenere towards the end of October and park you car and use ferries to visit le Cinque Terre, then ferry service starts to become problematic that far along into autumn. Earlier in the month, it is less of a problem.

However, if you are planning to use your car extensively while based in that area, I think you might want to consider Tellaro, which is a near-perfect Ligurian fishing village, pretty much unknown to tourists. Portovenere gets a lot of cruise ship tourism. Lerici does not, although I share the view that Lerici seems to have less of the charm of some of the smaller, colorful villages. For me, the enjoyment of the Riviera is either the tranquility of the tiniest lesser-known towns with the most gorgeous views, like Tellaro, or the fun places like Rapallo and Chiavari, which bustle with Italian shopping and Italian life all year round, and usually have the best food (in contrast to the international tourist destinations of Portovenere, Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino).

Finally, if any of your three nights include Oct 1 through 9, many of the upscale, 4* accommodations along the Liguran coast, as far down as Portovenere and Lerici, get booked up because of the international yacht show in Genova. But I'm guessing you are traveling later than that.

Aside from that, I think you have no problem finding accomodations in October along the coast. And if you stay in Portovenere, you can easily visit Tellaro, or Lerici or vice versa -- and consider visiting Ameglia, Sarzana and Montemarcello, especially in October, when chestnut and mushroom season is on, and try the local cake of Sarzana, called "spungata" (it's delicious).

http://www.italy-travel-vacation.com...ci_sarzana.htm

http://www.apathtolunch.com/2011/06/...o-tellaro.html

torrettas.com Manarola prettiest town in that area

for me from personal experience.

Puertoverene of your 2 pretty nice...

Thanks to all for your responses. Zeppole, thank you for the interesting additional details.