I will never forget the first time I saw Camogli from the sea. On the upper deck of a ferry, the light breeze tempering the summer heat, I watched as the town retreated into the distance. The tall, narrow buildings, each a different pastel shade, were stacked improbably up the steep hillside. The electric blue of the Ligurian Sea was counterpoint to the reds, yellows and oranges of the seaside buildings.

“Portofino is for the Americans. Camogli is for us Italians,” I heard someone say. Often overshadowed by its hugely popular neighbors, the jet set magnet of Portofino and the cruise ports of the Cinque Terre, Golfo Paradiso is a roughly 10-mile stretch of coastline in the Italian region of Liguria.