Liguria

The western stretch, the Riviera di Ponente, runs toward France with its back to the mountains. Here the land opens into terraces of olive trees and greenhouses, and the towns have a loosened, sunny air, as if they have given up on hurry. Head east and the coast tightens. The cliffs rise steeper, the pines come down to the water, and the villages sit in the folds of wooded headlands with a quieter, more private character. Genoa sits between the two, a port city that climbs its hillsides in layers. Its old centre is a maze of narrow streets called caruggi, where the buildings lean together so closely that the light reaches the pavement only in the middle of the day. Behind the coast, the land rises into chestnut woods and slate-roofed hamlets, where the pace is slower still and the mountains feel close enough to touch.

A day here tends to begin with bread. In Genoa, focaccia comes out of the ovens still soft and oily, and a square of it eaten standing up is the best breakfast the city offers. From there you can wander down to the harbour, where cargo cranes sit beside fishing boats and old cafés face the water. In the afternoon, take the train along the shore, which runs through tunnel after tunnel, so that the sea appears and disappears in bright flashes between the rock. Get off where the cliffs drop straight into the water and walk the coastal paths above them, past dry stone walls, terraced vines, and small fields of artichokes. At the end of the day, eat trofie with pesto made from basil picked that morning, and watch the lamps come on along the bay. The towns along this coast are small and close together, and every one has its own harbour, its own bakery, and its own opinion about the best way to fry chickpea flour into farinata.

The sea is never far from anything in Liguria, but it is the way the land meets it that stays in the mind: the steep gardens, the stacked roofs, the paths cut into rock above the swell. Leaving is easy to plan and hard to do. You come meaning to see one stretch of coast and find yourself lingering over a second cup of coffee, looking out at the same grey-blue water and wondering which headland you will walk to next. Liguria rewards the traveller who stays a little longer than planned, and who is willing to let a day take the shape the coast suggests.