Every year I like to visit at least one area of Italy that I’ve never seen before. Last year it was Verona/Lake Garda, and this year it is Liguria.

Actually, I should make a disclaimer. I’ve been to Liguria once before: but it was nine years ago and it was only for a day trip. I whizzed in and out of the Cinque Terre in about seven or eight hours, attempting to set foot on all five “terre” during my whirlwind (For the record, I accomplished only three, missing Corniglia and Vernazza).

Last month, I was contacted by Silvia Moggia who is working with the Visit Levanto consortium to help raise awareness of this wonderful coastal town within the Cinque Terre National Park. However, unlike its five next-door neighbors made famous by Rick Steves (the “other” Rick in Italy travel…I wish he’d stop using my name) this town has maintained its original Riviera feel, relatively uncorrupted by the tourist masses.

As a travel blogger, I’m beginning to encounter this more frequently; local businesses joining forces to do the job that official tourist boards are not doing…or at least not doing very well.

Listen to today’s podcast to get the whole scoop.

Visiting Levanto Italy

OK, so you’ve probably never heard of Levanto, right? (I hadn’t.) Then why should you consider putting this destination on your itinerary for your next visit to Italy?

Because increasingly, this is becoming the smart tourists’ way of traveling in Italy. Don’t stay in the center of Rome; stay in one outlying neighborhoods or one of the Castelli Romani that’s connected to the city by a local train line. Don’t stay “in” Florence, but in one of the charming Tuscan hill towns 20 minutes beyond the city walls in Chianti. Don’t stay IN the Cinque Terre; stay in Levanto which is much less crowded, cheaper, and only 4 minutes away by train (or two and a half hours by walking—I’ll get to that in a future post).

In fact, this strategy is even more important in Cinque Terre than in Rome or Florence. Those bigger tourist cities are able to absorb the swell of crowds during peak season and they have the hotels to handle last minute arrivals. Not so in Cinque Terre. For example, 50 years ago Vernazza was a sleepy fishing village of 700 people. Now the daily tourist invasion packs the town with 5,000 sweaty bodies at midday. You literally can’t move around the piazza without touching at least 2-3 other people.

In Levanto you have room to breathe (literally). There’s a quaint historical center with real people and real shops—NOT the continuous line of cheap souvenirs that has infected the Cinque Terre. There is also a very nice “lungomare,” or seaside promenade where you can rent beach equipment, enjoy watersports, eat a seafood lunch, or enjoy a sunset drink. And it’s quiet, relaxing. Exactly what seaside towns are supposed to be.

Furthermore, you can visit the charming towns of the Cinque Terre in the morning or evening when the crowds have retreated back to Pisa, Genova, or the cruise ships in La Spezia. Then you’ll appreciate what these picturesque villages looked like before Rick (the other one, not me) created the mob scene that they are today.

Silvia Moggia

My new friend and fellow travel blogger Silvia Moggia comes from quite an impressive cultural melting pot. Her father is Italian, from Vernazza, and her mother is from Argentina. After a childhood spent between small villages in Liguria and extended stays in South America,