Visiting Liguria: when to go, budget and itineraries

Genoa has to be earned: you have to accept getting lost in the caruggi, the dark, narrow alleys of the largest medieval centre in Europe. Via Garibaldi lines up the Rolli palaces and their painted facades, some of which open only at weekends. The old port, redeveloped by Renzo Piano, holds the aquarium, Italy's largest and a fine rainy-day refuge. Allow two days for the city, with an evening in a trattoria trying trofie with pesto and a slab of warm focaccia.

Portofino fits into a postcard: a tiny harbour ringed by pastel houses and yachts. The real pleasure is walking: the ridge trail from Camogli to San Fruttuoso, an abbey tucked in a road-free cove, then on to Portofino, about five hours with a swim halfway. Around it, Santa Margherita Ligure and Sestri Levante, with its Baia del Silenzio lined with coloured houses, are cheaper and well served by the coastal train.

To the east, the eastern Riviera ends in the five villages of the Cinque Terre, a national park closed to cars. The Blue Trail links them in five to six hours when open, with a Cinque Terre Card at around 18 euros a day for the paid paths and the train. At the far end, Portovenere and Palmaria island, in the same UNESCO listing, are reached by boat. The whole thing is done without a car, by train and boat.

West of Genoa, the western Riviera is sunnier and less busy. Sanremo blends a snail-shell old town, La Pigna, a Belle Epoque casino and 24 kilometres of cycle path on a former railway to San Lorenzo. Further on, the Hanbury botanical gardens on the border, the hilltop village of Dolceacqua painted by Monet and the Toirano caves in the hinterland round out the picture.

Ligurian cooking is that of a poor land turned refined: mortar-ground pesto, oily Genoese focaccia eaten from the morning, chickpea farinata, trofie and trenette. On the coast, Monterosso anchovies and the catch of the day. Expect 12 to 20 euros for a pasta dish, more in Portofino. The Cinque Terre white wine and the Dolceacqua rossese go well with fish.

The climate is mild all year, with 12 degrees in January and a 25-degree sea in August, which stretches the season from March to November. The weak spot is autumn: Liguria sees violent flash-flood episodes in October and November, sometimes with roads cut, trains halted and coastal trails closed for weeks. Spring, from April to June, and September offer the best balance of mild weather, walkable trails and bearable crowds, with the sea warm enough to swim by June.