The place file / Italian Riviera
Camogli,
Italy
A good many of the windows are painted on.
So is some of the stonework.
Salty Seniors place guide
Could I live here?The draw
Sunset over the water
The catch
Most of it is stairs
The question
How’s your Italian?
Some of the windows are painted on
Look closely at the tall houses along the harbour and some of the windows turn out to be paint. So do some of the shutters, the cornices and the carved stone around the doors. Ligurians have decorated buildings this way for centuries. It costs less than masonry, and from a fishing boat nobody can tell.
The houses run to six and seven storeys, each a different colour. The story is that the men could pick out their own from the water.
In the 1850s this small town owned about 700 sailing ships and was known as the city of a thousand white sails.
On the second Sunday of May they fry three tonnes of fish in a pan four metres across and give it away. They have been doing this since 1952.
Around the headland is San Fruttuoso, an abbey you can reach only by boat or on foot. Just offshore, about seventeen metres down, a bronze statue of Christ stands on the seabed with its arms raised. It was lowered there in 1954.
The pan is four metres across. The handle is six. It is used once a year.
What stays open year-round?
The town does. About 4,900 people live here all year, and the bakeries, the grocers, the pharmacy and the train station don’t take a season off. A share of the hotels and restaurants close for a few weeks in November or January. The beach clubs pack up in the autumn.
What will winter ask of you?
Very little. January afternoons are around 11°C and it almost never freezes. Autumn is the wet season, and when it rains on this coast it means it. What winter mostly asks is whether you like a quiet town, because from November to March you will have one.
How close is the care you need?
The full emergency departments are in Genoa, about half an hour away, with the big teaching hospital on the near side of the city. Everyday care runs through a local doctor once you are registered as a resident. Until then you will need private cover, and at any time you will need some Italian.
Could you live without a car?
You may prefer to. The train stops in the middle of town and reaches Genoa in about half an hour. Parking is scarce and priced to discourage. The real question is stairs. Camogli is built on a slope, and a good many front doors are several flights up with no lift.
What does a house cost?
About €4,800 a square metre in 2026, so something like €340,000 for a typical apartment, and more for a sea view. Liguria has the highest median age of any region in the European Union, 52.1. Nobody is in a hurry.
How long can you stay?
As a visitor, 90 days in any 180 across the Schengen area. To stay, the usual route is the elective residence visa, which asks for passive income of roughly €31,000 a year, or €38,000 for a couple, and does not allow you to work. Citizenship by descent now requires a parent or grandparent born in Italy. The rules were tightened in 2025.
