Santa Margherita Ligure

It was about a month or so ago that Nate and I started talking about where we should go for this past weekend.  It was a three day weekend for us here in Zurich (Whit Monday) and probably one of the last ones for a while since it seems the public holidays here are mostly front loaded to the first half of the year.  Therefore we definitely had to take advantage.  
We ended up choosing this small Italian town called Santa Margherita Ligure located in the Italian Riviera and it turns out we were thoroughly pleased with our choice.  It is a cute little town located on the water with enough going on where it’s not boring (definitely has restaurants and shops to choose from) but yet not a big city.  We stayed at the Hotel Villa Anita which no doubt added to our love of this small town.  It’s a small hotel run by a mother and her son and they are just the nicest people ever.  You feel like you are staying at a family member’s house.  Our room also had a lovely terrace with a view of the Italian hills and a small glimpse of the water.  Absolutely serene!

This is what greeted us when we arrived to our room

After a flight to Genoa followed by a short 30 minute train ride to Santa Margherita Ligure, we arrived at our hotel. I had pre-ordered a ham plate, cheese plate, mixed salad and bottle of wine and they had the table on our terrace all set up for us.  It felt like heaven!  We fell in love instantly with this town, the hotel and everything around us.  We enjoyed a lovely evening sitting on our terrace enjoying some good food and wine.

The next day we didn’t have any set plans so decided to just casually explore the town.  We strolled along the waterfront and took in the Italian beauty all around us.  We stopped for a coffee and hot chocolate, strolled some more looking at the shops, a church, piazzas and then stopped again for a delicious pizza for lunch.  The day was perfect!  The weather was warm (although not quite hot yet) and we were on no particular timeline.  That evening we enjoyed happy hour on our terrace with a bottle of wine that Nate procured from a little wine shop down from our hotel, dinner at a restaurant not far from that wine shop followed by a nightcap of limoncello on our terrace.  Again, just absolutely amazing and so peaceful!

Santa Margherita Ligure is actually located quite close to Portofino and I had read ahead of time that you can take a hike from one to the other.  So this is what we decided to do on Sunday.  Afterall, you hear so much about Portofino that we had to go check it out.  Not to mention, a little exercise is always good too.  So we headed out and actually took a walk along the water all the way to Portofino.  It’s 5km total and was such a pretty walk.

Portofino

We ended up in Portofino just in time for a lovely lunch looking out at the harbor.  I must say though, I wasn’t all that impressed with Portofino overall.  It was extremely small and felt kind of touristy (with those touristy prices too).  There just didn’t feel like there was much to do around there.  We had lunch, walked around for a short bit and then hopped on a ferry for a 15 minute ride back to Santa Margherita.  

For our last night there we enjoyed happy hour on our terrace (of course) and then headed into town to a restaurant recommended by Daniela at the hotel that had a lovely view of the water.  We enjoyed one more Italian meal (pasta and fresh fish) and discussed how we must come back.  We made all sorts of promises to ourselves to come back in the next few months sometime and stay for more than 3 days.  I hope we can do it!!!  People sometimes ask us what our favorite place has been that we’ve visited and I know Santa Margherita Ligure will certainly rate high on that list for me.