Ligurian coast
 

When is the best time to go?
What are the highlights/lowlights?

Thank you for your help.

Spring or fall. Highlights--Portofino, Camogli, Sta. Margherita Ligure.

Dont forget Cinque Terre...:)

Best time: late spring / early fall.
Highlights: all of the places mentioned plus Lerici and Portovenere in the Gulf of the Poets. Genoa is a lovely city as well.

Visited Camogli, Nervi and Genoa in May-June '04. The season hadn't fully kicked in yet - so if you're looking for buzz and crowds probably better to wait till end of June - though it will be crowded and more expensive. I did day trips to Sestri Levante and Santa Margharita from Nervi via the train. Genoa has been getting a good cleaning and face lift - stret being changed into pedestrian malls - I really like Genoa - it's an up and coming city. My friend rented a car which was helpful to explore further inland along the coast. Can't really speak for the area between Genoa and Nice but from what we saw it's more industrial.

I agree that late spring or fall is the best time to go. We were in Santa Margherita Ligure in late June for five nights. We never travel that late but circumstances landed us there. We loved SML as it was so Italian! I'm sure some of the Italians were tourists but that didn't matter to us.

We loved people watching in the park. We saw a little girl learn to ride a bike in two days, grandparents with their grandchildren.. their friends would also make a big fuss over the children..and just general comings and goings. We both agreed that we had seen enough of Bellagio in our week spent there but could easily return to SML.

We also enjoyed Camogli and CT. Camogli was not touristy at all and so beautiful! We took some of our best photos there. We also went the last 2 weeks of May it the weather was perfect and all of the flowers were in full bloom. It was a great time to go.

<<original poster>>

My wife and are thinking of going in September '06 as we've just returned from 10 days in Spain.

September is nice, yes?

We were there Sept 2004. The weather was gorgeous all the time, be it even somewhat on the hot side!

September is fabulous. I love SML because it is lively and a great place to take day excursions from, especially by boat. Portofino, Camogli and
San Fruttuoso by boat, and Genoa and the CT by train... just a great place.

I have posted this before, but since it seems to be helpful I will once again add a link to an article I wrote about the area:

http://www.postgazette.com/travel/20...fino0810p1.asp

My husband took the pictures.