The road from Santa Margherita twists through umbrella pines and oleander before dropping to sea level at Paraggi. You park where you can—spaces vanish by mid-morning—and walk down to a bay that seems calculated to extract maximum euros from minimal real estate. The beach clubs have colonized most of the sand with their geometric arrays of loungers, but a narrow public section survives at the northern end, defended by local regulation and Ligurian stubbornness.
“Paraggi offers the rare combination of transparent swimming water, protected calm, and proximity to Portofino without the harbor crowds.”
Credit: UnsplashWide white-sand beach with footprints
You wade in and the seafloor reveals itself through water the color of good gin—white sand patches alternate with dark seagrass beds where bass and bream hover. The bay curves protectively around you, blocking the open sea's chop. You swim out toward the moored yachts, their hulls impossibly white against the wooded headlands, crew members hosing down teak decks while their passengers lunch somewhere expensive in Portofino proper. Below you, the bottom drops away where the sandy shelf ends, and the water shifts from pale green to deep sapphire.
Back on your towel, salt drying on your shoulders, you watch the parade: Milanese families with elaborate lunch spreads, lone swimmers doing precise laps parallel to shore, a couple arriving by tender from their yacht, barefoot despite their obvious wealth. The beach club bar makes an overpriced but flawless aperitivo. Behind you, the coastal trail to Portofino climbs into the maritime pines, promising views you'll hike for later, after the sun loses its midday bite.
