Montemarcello is the pastel-painted hill village that sits 280 metres above Bocca di Magra, at the centre of the Montemarcello-Magra Natural Park. The walk up from the river takes about an hour on a well-marked trail through pine and holm oak; a road bus links the two for those who would rather save the climb for elsewhere.
The village itself is small but very pretty — a single piazza, a Romanesque church, a couple of cafes, and a network of car-free lanes painted in faded yellow, pink, and ochre. The terrace just beyond the church looks south over the Gulf of the Poets to Portovenere, and on a clear day across to the marble flanks of the Apuan Alps. The Orto Botanico (botanical garden) on the seaward side of the village is worth a stop for its collection of Mediterranean coastal plants.