Instead of the Cinque Terre: colourful Ligurian villages without the crowds
Instead of the Cinque Terre: Camogli, San Fruttuoso, Triora, Albenga and Genoa, colourful Ligurian villages without the crowds.
The Cinque Terre have become victims of their own success: over four million visitors a year, trains taken by storm and rationed trails, so much so that from 2026 the local councils will trial caps on groups and bans on stopping in the alleyways. If you're looking for an alternative to the Cinque Terre that keeps the pastel-coloured houses overlooking the sea, the good news is that Liguria is full of them: often just a few minutes by train from the five most photographed villages, and with a fraction of the crowds.
The Levante
The natural starting point is the Levante. Camogli, thirty minutes by train from Genoa, has the same skyline of tall, painted façades you're after in Vernazza, but remains a genuine fishing port, with shops for those who live there and not only for those passing through. From the same article you reach Boccadasse, the former fishing village absorbed by the city, perfect for an ice cream on the rocks without boarding a packed regional train.
San Fruttuoso
From Camogli also starts the most beautiful trail on the whole riviera: two and a half hours among pines and olive trees to San Fruttuoso, the Benedictine abbey wedged into a bay that no road reaches. You can only get there on foot or by boat, a natural filter against overcrowding. A practical trick: walk down and return by boat, so you avoid the final climb. The abbey, protected by the FAI, guards the tombs of the Doria family and a sixteenth-century tower with a view over the bay.
Those who go to the Cinque Terre to walk can shift their trekking to the Genoese hinterland. The trails of Monte Figogna climb along the ridges up to the Santuario della Guardia, with panoramas stretching from the Apennines to the sea; and the walk up to the Guardia is a small pilgrimage that restores the sense of slow walking that the Sentiero Azzurro now struggles to offer.
Genoa
For a dose of historic centre, Genoa beats any postcard village: its caruggi form the most extensive medieval labyrinth in Europe. Start from the Giardini Luzzati, the piazza-agora reclaimed above Roman and medieval ruins, today the heart of a city that lives all year round and not just in the selfie months.
Moving to the Ponente, Albenga offers a historic centre of medieval towers and a fifth-century early Christian baptistery: the same chromatic intensity of the alleys, zero queues. It's the ideal base for exploring a coast — that of Savona and Imperia — which international tourism almost ignores.
And if you like the idea of a perched village but want to change the atmosphere completely, climb up the upper Valle Argentina to Triora, the "village of the witches": very tall stone houses, extremely narrow lanes built to keep out the cold, a museum dedicated to the sixteenth-century trials, and a traditional bread that alone is worth the trip. This is mountain Liguria, cool even at the height of summer.
Outside the site's catalogue, but in the same vein, a few names are worth noting: Tellaro and Montemarcello on the Gulf of Poets, Framura with its cycling-and-walking path carved from the old railway, Sestri Levante with the Baia del Silenzio, and Bonassola, twenty minutes by train from La Spezia, with its beach and no crowds.
Practical tips
A few practical tips. The coastal railway is the backbone of the whole of Liguria: fast, scenic and as dense as the Cinque Terre line, but it takes you where others don't get off. For the hinterland, from Triora to the Figogna, you'll need buses or a car. And one last thing about the calendar: even these villages fill up around Ferragosto, so aim for May, June or September-October, when the sea is still good and the trains can breathe. The 2025 figures show that the flow is already redistributing towards the Tigullio and the valleys: getting ahead of it means finding them still real.
Practical guides for La Spezia
Practical info
When is the best time to visit Instead of the Cinque Terre?
The recommended time is April, May, June, September and October, when it is less crowded.
Where is Instead of the Cinque Terre?
Instead of the Cinque Terre is located in Italy.
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