The Italian Riviera

East of Monaco the coast road climbs into cliffs and the harbours shrink to a handful of boats. This is the Ligurian coast, split either side of Genoa into the Riviera di Ponente (the sunset coast, running west toward France) and the Riviera di Levante (the sunrise coast, running east toward Tuscany) — and Genoa itself does the heavy lifting: refit yard, new-built marina and international airport inside one working port. From there it is a short run either way to Portofino's impossibly small roadstead (an open anchorage short of a proper harbour), the Cinque Terre's five cliff-hung villages, and the Gulf of Poets at the eastern end, where Byron once swam the width of the bay for the sake of it.

“Two mooring buoys in Baia del Cannone and six or seven berths on the mole — Portofino has never had room for the fleet it attracts, and has never tried to build more.”

Signature anchorages

From the French border to the Gulf of Poets — close enough together that Genoa can reach any of them inside a morning.

• Portofino — the roadstead & Baia del CannoneNo marina, by design: Molo Umberto I's superyacht section holds only six or seven boats to 64m LOA (length overall). Baia del Cannone, the cove just northeast of the harbour, adds two mooring buoys with bow anchor for yachts to 80m; open anchoring is possible further out in settled weather, 8–12m over a muddy bottom. Inside the Portofino marine protected area (established 1999).
• San FruttuosoNo road reaches it at all — only by sea or on foot across the headland. A 10th-century Benedictine abbey, gifted to the heritage trust FAI in 1983 and holding the tombs of the Doria family, sits on its own tiny bay between Portofino and Camogli. Just offshore, at about 17m depth, stands the bronze Cristo degli Abissi (Christ of the Abyss), cast by Guido Galletti in 1954 — a dive-and-anchor stop as much as a scenic one.
• Santa Margherita Ligure & the Golfo del TigullioThe easier berth on the same bay as Portofino, a short tender or fifteen-minute drive round the headland to the Piazzetta. Villa Durazzo's seventeenth-century gardens sit directly above the harbour.
• The Cinque Terre — Vernazza & Monterosso al MareFive UNESCO-listed villages with no marina between them; anchor off Vernazza or Monterosso in settled weather (3–5.5m over sand and rock) and tender or water-taxi in. The Cinque Terre marine protected area (established 1997) zones the water in front of the villages — anchoring in parts of it needs a permit, and the core reserve zones are closed outright. Exposed to swell; a fair-weather call, not a certainty.
• Portovenere & the Golfo dei PoetiThe Gulf of Poets, at the eastern end of this water and UNESCO-listed alongside the Cinque Terre. Named for Byron and Shelley — Byron swam the roughly 8km crossing from Portovenere to Shelley's house at Lerici, and Shelley drowned in the gulf in 1822 sailing back from Livorno. Byron's Grotto, a sea cave beneath the Church of San Pietro, and Palmaria island, 300m offshore and a five-minute ferry across, are both within a tender ride of an anchorage off the town.
• Loano & Varazze, Riviera di PonenteThe practical western end, nearer the French border and Monaco than any of the above. Both are full-service marina towns rather than scenic stops — see berthing, below.

Marinas & berthing

Verified capacity, largest to smallest — and, at Portofino, the plain limit of it.

• Genova Waterfront Marina, Genoa to 130mBrand new, inside the historic port: 26 berths from 25m to 110m LOA generally, with dedicated superyacht capacity to 130m, on the Renzo Piano-designed Waterfront di Levante site — the same architect who reworked Genoa's Porto Antico (old port) in 1992.
• Amico & Co, Genoa 30–140mNot a marina but the refit hub itself, roughly 500m from the Waterfront Marina: a 65,000m² yard with a 102m covered graving dock (18m beam, 31m air draft, 7.4m draught), handling up to thirty-five projects at once. Part of the wider Amico Marine group, alongside the Waterfront Marina and Amico Loano.
• Porto Mirabello, La Spezia (Golfo dei Poeti) to 100mAn urban marina on an artificial peninsula, opened 2010: 1,107 berths in total, a hundred of them dedicated superyacht berths, draft to 9m on the largest.
• Marina di Loano to 77mA dedicated superyacht area of three finger pontoons from 55m to 77m LOA, 5m draft, within an 800-plus-berth marina on the Riviera di Ponente. Also under the Amico Marine umbrella.
• Marina di Varazze to ~50mAround 800 berths roughly halfway between Genoa and Savona; operators cite figures from 45m to 70m for the largest slots, so confirm current capacity directly for anything over 50m.
• Marina di Santa, Santa Margherita Ligure to ~50mA dedicated superyacht basin within the wider harbour, which otherwise runs to some 900 berths for day boats and the charter fleet.

The scene

The harbourside square, the boat show that closes the season, and the yard that keeps the fleet running.

Table & stay ashore

Two Michelin stars in Genoa, a piazzetta institution, and the addresses either side of them.

A week, sketched

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