[Nov. 2025] We had a short trip to Liguria in Northern Italy for the first time in a while.
This time, our destination was Santa Margherita Ligure, a place we’d never been to before.
After a second breakfast at Pret a Manger in Milan’s central station, we boarded our reserved 12:10pm train.
By the way, Pret a Manger is a cafe we used to frequent almost daily in London, but it’s recently become increasingly popular in Italy.
Until recently, the train to Liguria was called “Freccia Bianca” (White Arrow), but now it’s called Intercity Train.
The train was quite empty, but for some reason, my husband and I were seated far apart.
I’m not used to reserving seats on trains, so it often doesn’t go as planned.
Well, since the train was quite empty, we sat next to each other, so it wasn’t a problem.
It took two hours and four minutes to get to Santa Margherita Ligure directly.
Since this was just an overnight trip, it was easy for us carrying only one backpack each.
A short walk from the station took us to a four-star hotel called Jolanda.
The room wasn’t particularly special, but it was spacious enough, and the breakfast the next morning was quite good.
Because it was off-season, the room rate wasn’t very high, but when we later checked the booking website, thinking, “Maybe we should come back in the summer,” we found that it was nearly four times as much.
After a short break, we headed straight for a walk around town.
We first headed out to the seafront, and both my husband and I were surprised.
It looked very similar to Rapallo, where we had visited for a day trip the previous summer.
The buildings with their painted windows, the coastline, and the fact that the downtown area is just one block away from the sea are all identical.
This one seemed smaller, though.
Both towns are built on narrow swathes of land surrounded by mountains, so I guess they have similar feel.
Unfortunately, the weather was gloomy.
Perhaps because of that and the large, impressive Imperiale hotel, it reminded me a little of Torquay in southern England.
I imagine it’s a much more vibrant town in the summer.
We didn’t know it at the time, but we were lucky to stay only one night and return home the next day.
That’s because heavy rain hit the region shortly thereafter, causing significant damage.
