Cinque Terre

Only five hamlets, Cinque Terre. These are the land and sea of Mountainsrosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore: an infinite marvels of landscapes, of colors, and perfumes. This is the tract of Liguria from Punta Mesco to Punta di Mountains Nero sinking into the blue sea with infinite terraces that people have carved from the mountains and that Eugenio Montale saw and described with unforgettable poetry. Little villages clinging to hillsides, enchanting beaches, marine hamlets: it is all safeguarded by the Parco Nazionale and Riserva Marina. Unesco called it Cinque Terre, an international human heritage. There, the via dell'Amore awaits you. Motorboats salpano in front of the Lido Palace Hotel.

Paraggi

On the road that joins the Lido Palace Hotel in Portofino, opens the small bay of Paraggi. It is a delight for the eyes and for the soul, where a crescent of sand is bathed by a crystalline sea colored by the reflections of the thousand hues of the Mediterranean close to the hills that embrace the ancient hamlet of fishermen and millers . Even today, on via dei Mulini behind the hamlet, 12 historical mills bear witness to the ancient vocation of grinding flour in Paraggi.

Portofino, the park and the protected marine area

Enchanting, chic, of an extraordinary and yet delicate beauty, with perfect equilibrium between the work of nature and work of humans, co-existing in peace, Portofino has long been there, at the foot of the mountains, at the edge of the sea.

Portofino, beautiful and exclusive, is 5 Km. from the Lido Palace Hotel and is an obligatory stage in a stay in Santa Margherita Ligure. You can also reach it conveniently by sea, with the ferryboat that sails in front of the hotel.

Portofino and its surroundings are safeguarded by the Regional natural park of Portofino and by the protected marine area of Portofino, which safeguard the beauty of places and the species of flora and fauna of terra and of sea. Both can be visited, thanks to the close network of paths in the park and to the vessels carrying you to explore seabeds and cetaceans of the marine reserve, an experience not to be missed.

La Cervara and San Fruttuoso, thousands of years of devotion and traditions

Places of religion and of traditions, the abbey of La Cervara and San Fruttuoso are high testimonies to the art and faith of the Italian Riviera. Respectively 3 and a 8 kilometers of the Lido Palace Hotel, have kept the same fascination over the centuries, and wise restorations have maintained it practically intact today.

La Cervara is the abbey, Abbazia di San Girolamo in the Mountains of Portofino. Founded in 1396, it is an extraordinary Benedectine complex that holds, in a marvelous Italian-style garden, a church, cloister and buildings that once hosted illustrious names of history, literature and Christian faith, such as Francesco Petrarca, Saint Catherine of Siena, the Popes Gregory XI, Urban VI and Pius VII; and also, Francesco I, king of France, Alessandro Piccolomini and Guglielmo Marconi.

San Fruttuoso is the former abbey of Dorian princes. On the seashore, in a tiny bay between Portofino and Camogli, is one of the most attractive places of Liguria. Today owned by FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano, the Italian Environmental Fund), it can be reached only by boat or on foot along a path that travels close to the Mediterranean. On arrival, the effort of reaching San Fruttuoso is repaid by the view of the bay and of the extraordinary abbey on the beach. Built between the 10th and the 13th centuries, the complex holds a church, cloister, crypt, a bell tower and viewing tower, in an extraordinary and picturesque fusion of Romanesque and Renaissance forms.