Liguria Geography & Climate

Liguria's defining feature is how little flat land it has -- the Ligurian Alps and Apennines rise directly behind a coastline that in many places leaves only a narrow shelf for towns, roads, and railways. Where agriculture exists at all, it's often on terraces (fasce) cut into steep hillsides and held in place by dry-stone walls, used for vineyards, olive groves, and the basil that gives pesto alla genovese its name.

The coast is conventionally split into the Riviera di Levante (east of Genoa, toward La Spezia and the Cinque Terre) and the Riviera di Ponente (west of Genoa, toward the French border and Sanremo) -- a division based on the direction of the rising and setting sun rather than any administrative boundary.

The coast's combination of a sheltering mountain backdrop and southern exposure gives Liguria a genuinely mild Mediterranean climate even in winter, distinct from the more continental climate found just a short distance inland or over the mountains in Piedmont. Summers are warm and mostly dry; winters are mild enough to support palm trees and citrus groves along much of the coast. Rainfall can be intense and sudden in autumn, occasionally causing the kind of flash flooding that has damaged Cinque Terre villages in the past.