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Route · 7 days · round-tripYacht charter route · Amalfi

Lavagna round-trip.

A 7-day sail from Lavagna down the Ligurian Riviera: Sestri Levante, Bonassola, the Cinque Terre and the Portofino marine reserve.

The route

Day-by-day route

Click any pin on the map or any day in the route summary below to see that day's stop, story and photos.

Sestri Levante
Day 1

Lavagna → Sestri Levante

A gentle four-mile warm-up south from Lavagna's vast marina to Sestri Levante, where two bays sit back to back on one slate headland.

Distance

3 NM

Sailing

~0.6h at 5 kn

At a glance

Route at a glance

Best season

May – mid-October (peak Jun – Sep)

Duration

7 days

Departure

Lavagna

Sailing area

Amalfi

Route summary

Click any day to jump back to the map and see its photos, narrative and mooring tip.

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The full story

Day-by-day journey

Named anchorages, mooring notes and things to do for every leg of the week — the map follows along as you scroll.

Day 1 / 7
Sestri Levante
1
Day 1

Lavagna → Sestri Levante

Marina di Lavagna is a small city of masts, so give yourself time to clear the fairway before the short run south. Sestri Levante sits on a stubby peninsula with a bay on either flank. Baia del Silenzio, the eastern one, is the postcard: a shallow sandy scoop lined with pastel houses and beached fishing skiffs. We usually drop the hook here for a long lunchtime swim, then take a berth on the town quay for the night. The western bay, Baia delle Favole, earned its fairy-tale name from Hans Christian Andersen, who wintered here. Late afternoon, walk the Punta Manara path out to the headland for a view back over both bays. Dinner is easy: trofie al pesto at any of the harbourside trattorie, the sauce made the Genoese way with a mortar.

Things to do

Swim the sandy scoop of Baia del Silenzio

Walk the Punta Manara headland trail

Order trofie al pesto at a harbour trattoria

Watch sunset over Baia delle Favole

Mooring tip

The town quay takes you stern-to at roughly €50–80 a night and shelters well from the north. If it's full, anchor on sand in 4–6 m inside Baia del Silenzio and tender ashore.

Moneglia
2
Day 2

Sestri Levante → Moneglia

The leg to Moneglia barely counts as a passage, which is the point on a Riviera trip: short hops, long afternoons. The town tips down toward two pebble beaches, its roofline all terracotta and faded ochre. Anchor off Spiaggia di San Giorgio, where sand shelves gently under olive terraces and the holding is good in settled weather from the north. Above the village stands the Castello di Monleone, a squat sixteenth-century keep worth the climb for the coastline it commands. The water here is clear enough to spot octopus working the seagrass if you snorkel the edges of the bay. Ashore, the local vice is focaccia di Recco, that thin sheet of dough with molten stracchino between the layers, baked a few miles up the coast and best eaten warm at a portside osteria.

Things to do

Anchor off Spiaggia di San Giorgio

Climb to the Castello di Monleone

Eat focaccia di Recco at the port

Snorkel the seagrass for octopus

Mooring tip

Moneglia has no lazy lines to speak of, so drop anchor on sand in 4–6 m off San Giorgio for the day. The handful of village quay slots (about €40–60) go early in July, so radio ahead if you want a berth.

Bonassola
3
Day 3

Moneglia → Bonassola

Bonassola is a quiet one, a village of a thousand or so that keeps cars mostly at bay and lets you slow down. The great local secret is the old coastal railway: when the trains were rerouted inland, the tunnels became a flat, shaded cycle and walking path that runs east through the rock to Levanto and on toward the Cinque Terre. Hire a bike in the village and you can be looking down on the coast within twenty minutes. The small coves tucked under Framura, a mile or two west, are reachable only from the water and make a fine morning swim stop before you settle in. Anchor in the open bay off town on sand in 5–7 m. For dinner, look for salt-cured anchovies and a chilled Vermentino at a family-run osteria; the anchovy is a point of Ligurian pride.

Things to do

Cycle the old railway tunnel path

Swim the boat-only coves near Framura

Walk to the Madonnina della Punta chapel

Try salt-cured anchovies at an osteria

Mooring tip

Anchoring in Bonassola's bay is free on good sand in 5–7 m, well protected from the north but open to any southerly swell. The village has only a few quay spaces, so treat it as an anchorage rather than a berth.

Monterosso
4
Day 4

Bonassola → Monterosso

Round Punta Mesco and the Cinque Terre open up, five villages stitched into terraced cliffs that have been farmed for wine since the Middle Ages. Monterosso is the westernmost and the largest, split between an old quarter and the Fegina seafront, where striped umbrellas run along the region's one genuine sand beach. There is no marina and the quay belongs to the ferries, so plan to anchor in the bay on sand in 6–8 m and go ashore by tender. Monterosso is the natural base for walking the Sentiero Azzurro, the blue trail that links all five villages along the cliffs. Save an evening for the local table: salted anchovies cured in the town's own way, a wedge of chickpea farinata, and a small glass of Sciacchetrà, the honeyed passito these steep vineyards are known for.

Things to do

Walk the Sentiero Azzurro toward Vernazza

Swim Fegina's sandy beach

Taste Monterosso anchovies and farinata

Sip a glass of Sciacchetrà

Mooring tip

Anchor in Monterosso Bay on sand in 6–8 m, sheltered from the north; the quay is for ferries only, with no overnight berthing. In a southerly the bay gets rolly, so check the forecast before committing to the night.

Vernazza
5
Day 5

Monterosso → Vernazza

Vernazza is the one everyone photographs, and for once the reputation holds up: a cluster of tall pastel houses wrapped around a pocket harbour, with the eleventh-century Castello Doria and its round watchtower on the rock above. The catch for sailors is the seabed. Holding in the bay is patchy over rock and the anchorage is exposed, so most crews treat Vernazza as a day stop and run the three miles back to Monterosso to sleep. Go in early, before the ferries and the trail walkers arrive, and you can have the harbour steps almost to yourself. Climb to the castle for the long view down the coast, then snorkel the clear water under the cliffs near Punta Mesco. Before you leave, a lemon granita on the harbour piazza is the right kind of cliché.

Things to do

Climb to the Castello Doria tower

Snorkel the cliffs near Punta Mesco

Photograph the harbour at first light

Cool off with a lemon granita

Mooring tip

Expect moderate holding over rock in 6–8 m in Vernazza Bay, and no protection if the wind backs onshore. Anchor for the day only and take the overnight three miles back at Monterosso.

Anzo-Setta
6
Day 6

Vernazza → Anzo-Setta

This is the day with real sea room, a fifteen-mile reach back west to the Portofino headland and the marine reserve that guards it. Paraggi is the prize: a small cove of pale sand and improbably green water just short of Portofino, part of the protected zone and picked up by mooring buoys in season. A little further west lies San Fruttuoso, a Benedictine abbey folded into a cove you can only reach by boat or by the coast path from Camogli. Snorkellers come for the Cristo degli Abissi, a bronze Christ set on the seabed at about fifteen metres. The reserve has zones and rules, so read the buoyage and don't anchor where you shouldn't. Overnight, drop back to the marina at Santa Margherita Ligure, where a plate of trenette al pesto rounds off the day.

Things to do

Swim the green water of Paraggi

Visit the sea-bound San Fruttuoso abbey

Snorkel over the Christ of the Abyss

Berth and dine at Santa Margherita

Mooring tip

Inside the reserve you pick up a buoy at Paraggi for the day, and overnight anchoring in the protected zones is not allowed. Take a stern-to berth at Santa Margherita marina (roughly €100–160 in peak season) and book ahead in July and August.

Portofino
7
Day 7

Anzo-Setta → Portofino

The last leg loops eight miles south back to Lavagna, and it would be a crime to pass Portofino without stopping. The village made its name as a fishing port and never quite stopped looking the part, a horseshoe of ochre houses around a piazzetta that now fills with superyacht crews. Castello Brown sits on the hill above, a short walk up through the olives for the classic view down onto the harbour mouth. Berthing inside is priced for a different kind of budget, north of several hundred euros a night for a charter boat, so anchor off the entrance on sand in 8–10 m and go in by tender for a coffee and a wander. Then it's a straight run back to Lavagna to refuel, rinse the salt off, and toast the week with an aperitivo before handover in the morning.

Things to do

Walk up to Castello Brown

Anchor off Portofino for a swim

Wander the Portofino piazzetta by tender

Aperitivo on the Lavagna waterfront

Mooring tip

Anchor outside the Portofino entrance on sand in 8–10 m for a day visit rather than paying the harbour's premium. Back at Lavagna, take a lazy-line berth (about €80–120) with full fuel and services ready for the morning handover.

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