Santa Margherita Ligure

On the southern shore of the Portofino promontory, Santa Margherita Ligure pairs a working fishing port with patrician villas, monastic gardens and a palm-lined seafront. Less photographed than its glamorous neighbour, it offers the Tigullio’s most complete combination of history, coastal beauty and everyday Ligurian life.

Why visit

Santa Margherita is the rare resort that never stopped being a real town. Fishing boats still work the harbour beside pleasure craft; the market and the seafront cafés serve residents year-round; and the belle époque hotels recall an era when aristocratic families wintered on this coast. Travellers come for three things in particular: the grand Villa Durazzo complex above the sea, the Benedictine splendour of the Cervara abbey on the road to Portofino, and immediate access to the trails and coves of the Portofino regional park, part of which falls within the town’s territory. The seafront itself deserves unhurried time: pastel buildings in faded ochre and sage, a small castle on its own rocky spit, and a promenade that links the port to the gardens above in a five-minute stroll. Food is a further reason — the fishmongers and restaurants here still cook what the morning boats bring, and the town’s delis are serious about their focaccia and anchovies. If you want the Tigullio’s atmosphere without the crowds of Portofino, this is the place to sleep, eat and wander.

Character and history

The earliest recorded burgh, Pescino, suffered destructive raids in the early Middle Ages, including a Lombard attack in 641 and Saracen incursions in the tenth century. Held by the Fieschi family, it passed to the Republic of Genoa in 1229, and the Republic’s imprint remains visible in the sixteenth-century castle it raised against corsair raids — the coast was attacked as late as 1549, by the fleet of Turgut Reis. Under Napoleonic rule the neighbouring burghs of Pescino and Corte were merged in 1813 as Porto Napoleone; with the Restoration the town took its present name, honouring St Margaret of Antioch, its patron. From the late nineteenth century patrician families — above all the Durazzo — built sea-facing villas here, and after the Second World War the town consolidated its reputation as one of the Riviera’s most refined resorts, a status it has kept without ever becoming a museum of itself.

What to see

The cultural anchor is Villa Durazzo and Park: a late-seventeenth-century villa of the Durazzo family, with Italian gardens, terraces over the water, frescoed rooms furnished with period pieces, seventeenth-century Ligurian paintings and Murano chandeliers. East along the coast stands the Abbey of San Girolamo al Monte di Portofino (Cervara), a former Benedictine monastery with a cloister, chapter house and a remarkable terraced Italian garden of clipped topiary above the marine protected area. In the town centre, the baroque Basilica of Saint Margaret of Antioch, begun in 1658 over an earlier medieval church, presides over the upper town, while the hillside Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rose rewards the short climb with quiet and views. In the hamlet of Nozarego, a natural terrace over the Tigullio bay, the Church of Nostra Signora del Suffragio (Nozarego) is the starting point for paths into the Portofino park.

How to experience

Structure your day around the water. Morning: coffee at the port, then the walk or short bus ride out to Cervara, where the gardens are at their best in the first light. Midday: return through the alleys for trofie with pesto at a harbour trattoria. Afternoon: climb to the sanctuary or follow the signed trails from Nozarego onto the promontory, then swim at one of the bathing platforms or in the cove towards Paraggi. Boat services along the coast run in season and give the best perspective on the promontory’s villas. Photographers should aim for early evening, when the light turns the seafront ochres gold and the castle silhouettes against the bay. Festival dates punctuate the calendar — the patron’s feast in summer brings processions and music — so it is worth checking the municipal programme before booking. Confirm opening days for the villa and abbey in advance — both close on certain weekdays.

Practical planning

Santa Margherita has its own railway station on the Genoa–La Spezia line, roughly thirty minutes from Genoa; motorway access is via the A12. The historic core is compact and flat along the sea, though the sanctuaries involve climbs. Accommodation ranges from grand Victorian-era hotels to small guesthouses. The municipal administration’s site (comune.santa-margherita-ligure.ge.it) and the Villa Durazzo portal carry current information on tours and cultural programming; check seasonal boat timetables locally. Two or three days here cover the town comfortably, with more if you intend to walk the promontory’s trails.

Nearby places

Portofino is a short drive, bus ride or coastal walk away, and the wider Portofino peninsula protects the trails and abbey that frame this shore. Westward lie Rapallo, with its castle on the sea, Camogli and its maritime colours, and Genoa, the republic whose fleet once defended this coast; southeast along the same line is Sestri Levante.