Soggiorna
Two days is the right length for Rapallo, but not because the town is small: because two days hold the town AND a trip out to sea, and those are two different things that eat into each other if you try to do them in the same afternoon.
There is only one decision to get right, which is which of the two days to give to the boat. Everything else falls into place on its own.
The decision: which day for the boat
The boats to Santa Margherita, Portofino and San Fruttuoso leave from the pier and run seasonally: frequencies and times change through the year, and in rough seas sailings can be cancelled.
So the rule is simple: look at the forecast the evening before and put the boat on the better of the two days. The town works in any weather, the crossing does not. Anyone who decides "we will do the boat tomorrow" and wakes up to wind simply does not do the boat.
If the weather is the same on both days, keep the boat for the second: the first also serves to work out where things are.
Day 1 — The town and Montallegro
Morning: the centre
Rapallo is walkable. The carruggi, the narrow lanes, lie behind the seafront and are where you really eat and where the workshops are; the medieval bridge known as Hannibal's bridge is close by, and the attribution to the general is a fond legend nobody takes seriously — the bridge, though, is old and it is there.
It is a morning without compulsory stops: the kind of centre you visit by walking through it, not by ticking off a list.
Afternoon: the cable car and the sanctuary
The cable car leaves from piazzale Federico Solari and climbs to the sanctuary of Nostra Signora di Montallegro, on the hill behind the town: 600 metres of ascent in eight minutes, two cabins holding 24 people. It is the only aerial cableway of its kind still working in Liguria.
The sanctuary is tied to the apparition of 1557 to a local farmer, Giovanni Chichizola. But the reason to go up, put plainly, is the view: from there you see the whole gulf, with the Portofino promontory on one side and the coast stretching towards Sestri Levante on the other. It is the single glance that explains the geography of the whole area, and once you have seen it the rest of the stay makes more sense.
Walkers can go up or down on the paths: it is a real climb, for early morning and not for two in the afternoon in August.
Cable car times change with the season and the line closes for maintenance, usually in November and January. Check the official site the day before: it is the only part of this itinerary that can fall through.
Evening: the castle and the seafront
The castle on the water is the sixteenth-century fortress on a rock at the water's edge, built after 1549, the year the Ottoman fleet sacked the town. It is not stage scenery: it is a defence, and you understand it by looking at what it watches over. Exhibitions are held inside, so it is worth checking what is on.
At sunset it is where the whole town stops, and lungomare Vittorio Veneto with its bandstand is where the evening ends. It is not a monument, it is a habit, and it is worth more than a monument.
Day 2 — The sea
The main option: Portofino or San Fruttuoso
The boats leave from the pier. Portofino is the destination everyone knows; San Fruttuoso, with its abbey in a bay reachable only on foot or by sea, is the one that repays most for anyone who has never been.
This is also why it is worth sleeping in Rapallo rather than out there: you stay in a town that lives all year round, with a town's services and a town's prices, and you go to see the promontory for the day.
The walking alternative: San Michele di Pagana
If the sea is rough, or you would rather not spend the day on a boat, the second day stays on land and heads for San Michele di Pagana, the hamlet beyond the harbour towards Santa Margherita.
There is something there almost nobody expects: the church of San Michele Arcangelo, attested as early as 1133, holds a Crucifixion by Van Dyck between saints Francis and Bernard, with the donor Francesco Orero, a Genoese noble who had a house here. It was most probably painted during the artist's stay at San Michele between 1621 and 1624, and it is the only altarpiece Van Dyck painted in the whole of Liguria.
Around it are the coves: Pomaro, the beach in front of the village, and the two small free beaches of Trelo and Prelo — you go down to the latter from the church itself. They are tiny and in August they fill early, but they are the finest part of the town's coast.
If it rains
The plan does not collapse, it shortens: the exhibitions in the castle and the bobbin lace museum at villa Tigullio, inside Parco Casale, are both short indoor visits. Bobbin lace is a local craft tradition, and the museum is one of those short visits that stay with you.
Rapallo, unlike the villages around it, is a town that lives all year: shops and places to sit down do not close in September.
If you are there in early July
There is the Montallegro festival, which is the town's festival. It changes the rhythm of everything: factor it in when you plan, one way or the other.
If you only have one day
Cable car to Montallegro in the morning, centre and lanes in the early afternoon, castle and seafront at sunset. Drop the boat: doing it in a hurry means doing it badly, and the crossing is the part that deserves time.
For an overview of the town, see the guide to Rapallo.
Frequently asked questions
Are two days enough to see Rapallo?
Yes, and it is the right length: two days hold the town with the cable car up to Montallegro and a trip out to sea towards Portofino or San Fruttuoso. With only one day you keep the town and give up the boat.
Better to stay in Rapallo or Portofino?
Rapallo is a town that lives all year round, with a town's services and prices, and it is connected by sea to Santa Margherita, Portofino and San Fruttuoso. That is why it works as a base: you sleep here and go to see the promontory for the day.
What is there to see in Rapallo in two days?
On the first day the old town with its lanes and the bridge known as Hannibal's, the cable car up to the sanctuary of Montallegro and, at sunset, the castle on the water and the seafront. On the second day the boat to Portofino or San Fruttuoso, or San Michele di Pagana with the church that holds Van Dyck's Crucifixion.
When is the best time to take the boat trip?
On the better of the two days according to the forecast: the town works in any weather, the crossing does not, and in rough seas sailings can be cancelled. Frequencies and times are seasonal.
What can you do in Rapallo if it rains?
The exhibitions in the castle on the water and the bobbin lace museum at villa Tigullio, inside Parco Casale. Both are short indoor visits, and the town stays alive out of season too.