Camogli Harbour

The painted waterfront and fishing harbour at the heart of the village

Camogli's harbour is a small, perfectly formed affair: a curved mole enclosing a basin of fishing boats, backed by a row of immensely tall, narrow palazzi painted in terracotta, yellow, and sage green, with trompe-l'oeil decorations imitating columns, cornices, and shuttered windows. The whole ensemble reflects in the water on calm mornings. It is the image most people carry away from the Italian Riviera, more than Portofino's yachts or the clifftop villages of the Cinque Terre.

The harbour remains working — Camogli still has an active fishing fleet, and in the early mornings you can watch the boats coming in. The fish market operates at the harbour on weekday mornings. The pebble beach beside the mole is swimmable from late spring to early October, with the water deep enough to jump from the sea wall.

things to do sight
A story
The tall, elaborately painted facades on the harbour front are not purely decorative — the tradition of trompe-l'oeil painting arose partly as a form of competitive display among fishing families, and partly from practical necessity. At a time when pigments and fresco plasterwork were expensive, painting false windows, pediments, and balustrades was a way to suggest a grander building than you could actually afford. The results, accumulated over centuries, created something more interesting than the real thing.

Other places in Things to Do