Rick Steves Suggests This Beach Town On The Italian Riviera For Cinque Terre Charm Without The Crowds

When Rick Steves name-drops a town in Italy, people pay attention. That's just the way it is. This is a man who's been revealing the ins and outs of Europe since the 1970s, after all! So, when Steves put down his picks for off-radar gems on the Italian Riviera, it's fair to say that the interest levels of Italophiles everywhere were set to "highly piqued." And piqued they should be, for the Euro buff offered up a series of charming beach hubs beloved of locals — each threaded with shimmering sands and access to hiking paths along the pretty cliffs. Among them, there's Sestri Levante.

Be warned: This isn't the quintessential part of the Italian Riviera you've likely seen on the postcards. Heading to Sestri Levante means ditching the fabled five villages of Cinque Terre and traveling 45 minutes north up the Ligurian coast. But, for Steves, that's the point. Dodging the resort hubs means you'll get to see a corner of the region not often glimpsed by international travelers. One with all the same salt-washed pebble coves and pastel-painted coast homes, only without the hordes of camera-snappers.

The good news is that Sestri Levante is just as well-connected as the region's other, more-famous spots. It's only a 1.25-hour drive from Pisa Airport down in Tuscany, and a touch over 40 minutes from Genoa Airport to the north. What's more, the very fact that you can simply rock up in a rental car and park for a couple of dollars means it's already got the edge on the Cinque Terre villages, where vehicle access and parking is notoriously challenging.

It's been estimated that a whopping 2.5 million people visit Cinque Terre's villages each year. To put that into perspective, it's almost the whole population of Chicago crammed into just a handful of towns along a mere 7.5 miles of shoreline. As a result, it's hardly a wonder that there are so many efforts afoot by locals to stave off overtourism.

Of course, if you're dead-set on visiting this iconic part of the Italian boot, there are still several crowd-free things to do up and down the Cinque Terre. However, one sure way to escape the hubbub of day trippers and cruise shippers is to look north to little Sestri Levante, often touted as one of the region's best-kept secrets. As Nicolò Mori, president of a local business group, told Forbes in 2022: "Sestri Levante is not well known, and we like it this way ... We wouldn't want to become a Cinque Terre because it would destroy the genuinity of the town."

And what a town it is. Even Rick Steves waxes poetic about the location on a narrow headland with beautiful beaches on both sides. Behind, there's that ubiquitous Italian old town with cobbled lanes knitting together runs of terracotta-colored buildings, centuries-old churches, and pretty palazzos all spilling out onto a port of paint-peeling fishing boats. It's gorgeous stuff!

A glance at the map reveals that Sestri is blessed with not one, but two urban beaches. It's this quirk of the Ligurian shoreline that's helped to elevate the spot as a fine option for summer escapes on the Riviera. The most iconic bay here is the beautifully named Baia delle Favole, or the Bay of Fables. It apparently got the moniker after inspiring Danish fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen, and it now reigns as the city's main lido — offering umbrella-shaded loungers beside a clear sea all summer long.

Head south through the town from there to reach Baia del Silenzio (the Bay of Silence), beach numero due in Sestri Levante. This is a real heart-string-puller, unfolding in a half halo of ice-cream-colored homes beside an inky sea and powdery sands. It's been ranked among the best beaches in the whole country, and looks ultra-romantic with its age-old Italian fishing boats dotting its shoreline.

Don't forget that the town is a gateway to the glorious greater Riviera, too. The underrated Italian beach town of Levanto, for example, is less than an hour to the south, and there are umpteen coves and sands between there and Sestri. This includes the wide beaches of Moneglia and the lived-in fishing town of Riva Trigoso.