Things to do in Camogli on a rainy day (and beyond)

You open the curtains, take one look at the sky, and there it is — a steady Ligurian drizzle turning the harbour a moody shade of grey. The fishing boats are bobbing in mist, the famous painted houses look almost more vivid in the rain, and for a moment you seriously consider just staying in bed with a coffee and a vague sense of grievance about the weather forecast. Don't. Because Camogli on a rainy day is, in its own quiet way, magnificent. The day-trippers stay home, the alleys empty out, and the bakeries smell even better than usual. Here is what to do with yourself.

Museums and places worth discovering

With the beach off the menu, it's time to engage your brain. Camogli has a maritime history so outsized for a village this small that it borders on the absurd — at its peak in the nineteenth century, this modest hillside town operated one of the largest merchant sailing fleets in the entire Mediterranean. The Museo Marinaro "Gio Bono Ferrari", housed in the municipal palazzo overlooking the harbour, tells that story through navigational instruments, hand-built ship models, seafarers' votive offerings and wonderfully worn photographs of men who spent their lives at sea. Budget at least an hour and come out feeling like you actually understand where you are.

From there, walk to the Castello della Dragonara, the medieval fortress perched on the rocky promontory dividing the harbour from the open sea. It hosts temporary exhibitions and, even when it doesn't, the views from the battlements in low cloud are genuinely cinematic. Bring a jacket.

The Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta on the seafront is the third stop. The facade is painted with trompe-l'œil architecture — a classic Ligurian trick that is far more impressive in person than in photographs — and the interior is all baroque gilding and quiet candlelight. No queue, no noise, just the sound of rain on old stone.

Eating properly — which the sun always interrupts

Here is the honest truth about rainy-day Camogli: the food is the same as on sunny days, but you have more time to actually enjoy it. Start with focaccia. Not the thick, bready kind you might be imagining — Ligurian focaccia is thin, almost crispy at the edges, pooled with olive oil and scattered with coarse sea salt. The ovens fire up early and the first batch of the morning deserves to be eaten hot, standing at the counter, possibly dripping slightly from the walk there. It costs almost nothing and tastes extraordinary.

Mid-morning, track down farinata: a flatbread made from chickpea flour, cooked in a wood-burning oven until the edges go crisp and the centre stays custard-soft, finished with a serious amount of black pepper. It exists almost exclusively in Ligurian bakeries and stands — you will not find the real thing in a tourist restaurant — so consider yourself lucky that a rainy day gave you a reason to look for it.

For lunch, sit down somewhere and order trofie al pesto. The pesto you will be served here is not the pesto you have eaten elsewhere. Made with tiny, sweet Ligurian basil leaves, pine nuts, Parmesan, aged pecorino and local olive oil, it has a brightness and fragrance that is genuinely difficult to replicate outside the region. Trofie are the ideal vehicle — short, twisted pasta that holds the sauce in every groove. Order a secondo of fresh fish if you have room. You probably will.

A bookshop afternoon, or an enoteca — pick your vice

Once lunch has settled and the rain is still going strong, it's time to make a choice. The antiquarian bookshops and curio stalls tucked into Camogli's narrow streets reward slow browsing: old nautical charts, nineteenth-century postcards, battered volumes on Ligurian history. The kind of thing you don't look for but always find.

Alternatively — and perhaps more enjoyably — find a local wine shop or enoteca and ask for a guided tasting of Ligurian whites. Vermentino and Pigato are the wines to start with: both grown on steep coastal terraces, both carrying a salinity and minerality that you don't get from inland grapes. Ask the owner what they'd open for themselves on a rainy afternoon. The answer will be better than anything on the menu.

A train to Rapallo or Santa Margherita Ligure

Camogli's train station is a five-minute walk from the centre, and it connects the village to the rest of the Tigullio Gulf with a speed and ease that makes renting a car seem almost wilfully complicated. Rapallo is fifteen minutes away: bigger, livelier on a grey day, with a waterfront castle, covered arcades for rain-dodging, and a good selection of independent shops and cafes. It's the comfortable choice.

Santa Margherita Ligure is around ten minutes further and one step up in elegance: Liberty-era buildings, a yacht-filled harbour, and a handful of bars and restaurants that are genuinely worth the journey. It makes an excellent aperitivo destination — board a train around five, have a drink watching the marina lights come on, take the train back before dinner.

Spa and relaxation nearby

If your body has been signalling that a beach holiday is all well and good but what it actually wants is a heated pool and a skilled pair of hands, today is the day to listen. Several hotels in Rapallo and Santa Margherita Ligure — including some of the larger properties with serious spa facilities — offer day access to non-residents, including pools, saunas and treatment bookings. Call the day before, confirm availability, and consider it done. An hour on a massage table on a rainy afternoon is arguably a better use of time than an hour on a sun lounger. You didn't hear that from us.

When the rain stops — plan your comeback

Ligurian weather tends to be theatrical but brief. By morning the sky will likely have cleared, the sea will have shifted back to that particular shade of deep blue, and everything wet will be shining in the early light.

Use the evening to plan. Punta Chiappa is forty minutes on foot from San Rocco di Camogli, and the reward is a jagged rocky headland surrounded by water so clear and turquoise it looks implausible. Go early, bring a swimsuit, and try not to tell too many people about it.

Or take the boat to San Fruttuoso: a medieval abbey reached only by sea or on foot, sitting in a perfect sheltered bay with a few wooden tables outside a trattoria and the submerged bronze statue of the Cristo degli Abissi seventeen metres below the surface. It's one of those places that doesn't quite feel real. Arrive in the morning, eat lunch on the jetty, take the afternoon boat back.

Camogli, it turns out, has more than enough to keep you busy regardless of what the sky is doing. The rain just makes sure you finally slow down long enough to notice.