One night on Italian Riviera--where should we stay?
 

What town should we stay in? We're also looking for hotel and restaurant suggestions--and best places to buy olive oil and Italian goodies.
Thanks for any advice!

What part of the Riviera are you talking about? The part between Genoa and France, or the part between Genoa and Livorno?

Genoa and France--we will be coming for an overnight from France....

Santa Margherita Luguria is a great place to stop. We stayed there at Christmas aftre coming from Nice. Oops sorry just saw the Genoa and France Location. San Remo is also nice. We stayed at the Hotel Bobby which is to the right when you come down from the highway. Beautiful sunsets.

JES - you will love Varazze. We were passing through on our way to France, coming from Venice a few years back & just stumbled across this gem of a town. It's very laid back, you will fee like a local - and SO beautiful!! Anyways in Liguria is awesome. Have fun!

If you don't want to stay in Genova itself, I suggest you look up the town of Cervo on the web. It's the prettiest town on the coast. The Ristorante San Giorgio is in Cervo, and it is a "destination" restaurant, one of the finest in Liguria. It also has rooms to rent.

There are not a lot of accommodations in Cervo. La Serafina, another restaurant, also lets rooms with sea views and there is a hotel that I believe is called the Belvedere or Bellavista.

You can also do google searches for "Riviera di Ponente" and come up with several sites that will give you detailed descriptions of the other towns along the coast. A few have artistically important "centro storicos" or retain the quaintness of fishing villages, although many have a lot of tourist and industrical development.

Also, instead of staying right on the coast you might consider going half hour inland from San Remo to the extraordinary hilltown of Apricale. Look up pictures on the web. There are one or two quaint locandas in Apricale, but if you have a car, it would be easier to stay on the neighboring hill at the ristorante albergo La Favorita, which has ample parking, handpainted rooms, good food and a spectacular view of Apricale as well as a glimpse of the sea.

It is pretty hard to go wrong anywhere along the Ligurian coast when it comes to food, especially if you like seafood. There is an olive oil museum in Oneglia, which is the capital of olive oil production in Italy. You might try asking the locals where to get the best olive oil.

If restaurants, food and shopping are more important than views or quaintness, it is hard to beat Genova itself as a destination. Unless you'd simply rather not be in a city, you might consider staying there. There are hotels in the renovated port area that have good parking, I believe.

PS: Rather than San Remo, I would recommend neighboring Bordighera for a beautiful coastal view and an unusual, transborder feel.

Thank you for all of the great advice. All of these towns look beautiful.
I wouldn't have thought of going into the hilltops, but Apricale looks spectacular!
What are your thoughts about staying right in the CT?

What time of year are you going? Anytime from late April to early October means hordes of tourists and not many places to escape unless you are into serious hiking most of the day. Where would you park your car?

With a car, you might want to try Lerici or Levanto and use ferries or trains to get to CT. That way, if you feel like using the car to do some other touristing when you don't feel like hiking (or if it rains), you can pull in and out with greater ease.

If you don't have a car, Santa Margherita Ligure or Levanto has good train service to Cinque Terre. SML is a yacht harbor with lots of amenties; Levanto is more small town.

I found this for Cervo:

http://www.cervo.com/main.php?p_id=p...ng=en&id=1

Just to clarify: Are you heading from France to the CT and want a stop in between? Or are asking whether it is a good idea to drive from France directly to the CT and spend one night there?

If it is the latter, I would suggest you stay in Camogli, if you are willing to drive south of Genova, and skip CT altogether. If you want a nice hike with cliffs over the sea views, hike the Portofino peninsual, beginning in Camogli.

We are leaving tomorrow for the South of France and I thought we were going to do a daytrip into Italy, but my husband thought it would be nice to stay over and the photos I have seen of the CT look so beautiful.
I'm not sure how long the hikes are from town to town, but I thought it would be nice to hike one or two towns and take a ferry back to where we are staying.
We will have a car so we will need a place to park.
And I want to be able to stop somewhere, even if it's en route to get some olive oil and a great restaurant.
Obviously this is very last minute so I don't have a place to stay and I haven't figured out which day/night to go. Do you think it will be a nightmare finding a place en route so we can go with the flow?
Thanks so much for all of your great advice!

Without looking at a map, I'm not sure if Santa Margherita Ligure is conveniently located for you. But it's a wonderful little town, with a pretty harbor, plenty of restaurants, shops, markets. We recently spent three nights there, using it as our base to take the train down to CT and the bus/boat to Portofino for our day-trips. We loved SML for its laid-back, less touristy atmosphere. We stayed at a nice and inexpensive B&B there, the Nuova Riviera. It's about 4 blocks up the hill from the harbor, and a short cab ride from the train station if you have luggage, otherwise an easy walk to the train station. Have fun!

Forgot to mention we took the train to Vernazza, then took the ferry back from Monarolo (sp?). It was a good way to do it. The coast is beautiful from the water, as it is from the hiking trail.
If you want to do a hike, do some research into the different degrees of difficulty. I wish I'd known more about them. We chose the one from Vernazza to Corniglia, which wasn't exactly what I'd expected. The views of the coast are fantastic, but it's all stair steps up, for about 90 minutes. Walking up a path would have been less taxing, the stone steps get really tough. We should have known to hike it down, at least. I think the walks from Corniglia south are easier, but I'm not sure about that. My daughter walked from Corniglia to the next town south (is that Manorolo?), and said it was really easy compared to the one we'd just done. I took the train to meet her, which was somewhat silly when I realized I'd have to walk down a gazillion stairs from Corniglia itself to the train station. Could have just done the hike with her, and it probably would have been easier. My point is: research the hikes to choose the one you want.

Thanks Maureen--these a great points. Ugg...I wish I had looked at this before now, as I'm on such a tight time schedule before leaving.
Can you tell me about how long it is from town to town hiking? I'm sure it varies--but I'm wondering what the shorter and most scenic--not too difficult hikes are.
Does anyone have a link to a great CT site which will spell all this out?
Thanks!

How about for a ferry schedule among the CT?

JES, I actually just posted another thread on this forum, suggesting that Travel Talkers put together a "superthread" re: CT hiking trails and degree of difficulty. Here's one resource I have found:

http://goeurope.about.com/cs/cinquet...cinque_map.htm

I am no expert, for sure. But my daughter thought the trail from Corniglia to Manarolo was flat and pretty. It took her about an hour, but she was hurrying to meet me.

Here's a cut-and-paste from the above resource:
*The trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola is paved (it is called the "Via dell'Amore" or Path of Love) and is short, only 20 minutes between the towns.
* From Manarola on the trail is not paved. It becomes narrow and steep in many places, but the trail never becomes excessively difficult. The walk from Manarola to Corniglia takes one hour. The last half of the trail walks you up a beautiful switchback staircase that goes from sea level to the town up on a cliff.
* From Corniglia to Vernazza the trail gets more narrow and includes lots of stairs climbing and descending as it makes its way along the coast. It takes about an hour and a half.
* The last portion, from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare, is the longest. It takes about two hours with lots of up and down. I counted 700 steps down to Monterosso at the end.

We took the ferry from Manarolo back to Vernazza. It was simple to just catch the next ferry, as they run frequently during tourist season. (No ferry landing at Corniglia, though.) I don't think you need to worry about the ferry schedule-- just play it by ear depending on your hiking, weather, etc.

Maureen--thank you so much! This is so helpful!!!!

You're very welcome. No more stress-- your trip will be wonderful!

FYI: There is a shuttle that will take you from Corniglea to the train station and back avoiding the steps.

I realized this too late and walked up those steps twice, once in 1996 and again in 2005. I shall not make that mistake again.