Ligurian food is filling and delicious. The flower-growing region is also famous for its edible produce: olives, peaches, asparagus, artichokes and tomatoes; speciality dishes include pesto - with pasta or even on pizza - and products based on potatoes and chickpeas. Specially recommended is farinata a tasty snack which is made from chickpeas and which is delicious eaten hot in a takeaway.

South of busy Genoa, the coast winds through some of Italy's prettiest scenery. Portofino, a tiny harbour town famed for its elegance, sits at the tip of a large promontory; just to the south, Santa Margherita Ligure is a larger, stately resort where palms wave along the esplanade. The coastal route south touches other popular resorts - Rapallo, Sestri Levante - before reaching the famed mountainous coastline of the Cinque Terre. These are five picturesque fishing villages set along the beautiful steep coastline, with plenty of good walks which attract crowds of energetic tourists. Just a little further south, Portovenere on its rocky headland marks the beginning of the huge coastal indent, the Golfo dei Poeti, haunt of Byron and the Shelleys. The area's largest town, La Spezia, sits across the inside of the bay, on the southern side prettier towns include Lerici (where the Shelleys lived) and San Terenzio.