Portovenere
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Portovenere, Cinque Terre And The Islands Of Palmaria, Tino And Tinetto, Inscribed 1997), With The Church Of San Pietro Of 1198 On The Point · Portovenere, Liguria
Portovenere sits at the end of a peninsula on the far side of the Gulf of La Spezia from the Cinque Terre, shares their UNESCO inscription, and gets a fraction of their visitors, which is the entire argument for going. A row of tall narrow houses painted in flat colours faces the harbour, and at the point beyond them a black and white striped church of the thirteenth century stands on a rock spur with the open sea on three sides and the swell coming in underneath it. Behind the church a ruined Genoese castle climbs the hill, and below it a sea cave that Byron is supposed to have swum out of, which is probably not true and is the sort of story the place keeps. Three small islands lie immediately offshore, one with a monastery and one that is closed to landing entirely. Boats run to the Cinque Terre in season, which makes this a much cheaper and quieter base for seeing them than any of the five villages.
Calata Doria, Portovenere, Liguria, 19025, Italy
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The structure: the village, the harbour front and the rock spur are public and never close. San Pietro opens daily and free with a midday interval and shorter winter hours, closing for services. The Doria castle keeps museum hours with a weekly closing day and reduced winter opening. BOATS ARE SEASONAL: crossings to Palmaria and the Cinque Terre run through the summer, thin sharply out of season and are cancelled in swell. Landing on Tino is permitted on only a handful of days a year.