Italy is not limited to its star destinations: here are five places to head out to sea, far from the most traveled routes.
Camogli, serenity a stone’s throw from Portofino
Life with your feet in the water. On the Ligurian coast, at the edge of the Gulf of Paradise, the town of Camogli unfurls its trompe-l’oeil façades, brightly painted, along a pebble beach bathed by the Ligurian Sea. It’s hard to believe that this haven sits fifteen kilometers northwest of the bustling Portofino, the area’s most frequented destination, with jet-set vibes and luxury yachts. Camogli, for its part, preserves a calmer atmosphere, animated by the ballet of its small community of artisanal fishermen.
Herculaneum, the other Pompeii
The site of Pompeii impresses with its enormity, but Herculaneum, a little farther north, also swallowed by the Vesuvian eruption in 79 CE, strikes visitors with its exceptionally well-preserved state. This is evidenced by the monumental fresco in the College of the Augustales (the priests of the Imperial cult), which depicts the duel between Hercules and Acheloüs to win the hand of the beautiful Deianira. A seaside town, it sheltered wealthy patrician houses, many of which, along with refined objects and mosaics, survived the catastrophe.
Orta, the Cinderella of the great lakes
In the shadow of its famous elder siblings, Lake Como and Lake Maggiore, which are grand and cosmopolitan, Lake Orta is small, modest, discreet… yet it possesses breathtaking beauty. This is why it is nicknamed Cenerentola, the Cinderella of the lakes. Just 400 meters from the shore of this Piedmont jewel rises the San Giulio Island (isola San Giulio), a rocky islet crowned with a millennial basilica and a Benedictine abbey. A path, the Via del Silenzio (“the Way of Silence”), winds across the island, lined with signs inviting meditation.
Porto Pino, Sardinia, but on the southern side
Forget the crowds of Costa Smeralda in northern Sardinia. Point your compass instead to the island’s southwest, where, about an hour and a half drive from Cagliari, Porto Pino reveals an astonishing tableau: wind-sculpted, monumental dunes of white sand, pale as powdered sugar, rising up to 20 meters, and drifting into turquoise waters. Here there is no flashy hotel complex, but ancient junipers and unspoiled wild nature. The Sardinian version of the edge of the world.
Abruzzo, a giant in the shadow of the Dolomites
The landscapes, spectacular, evoke those of the Dolomites’ hiking trails… minus the crowds. In the wild Abruzzo region (central Italy), flocks graze peacefully on vast high-altitude plateaus, dominated by the colossal silhouette of Gran Sasso, a massif of the Apennines with sheer limestone faces rising to 2,912 meters. The ultimate frontier of a mountainous and pastoral Italy.
➤ Article published in GEO magazine no. 571, “Hidden Italy, from Marche to Calabria”, September 2026.
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