On the night of 16 December 2011 a storm carried off the lantern of the Camogli lighthouse: gone into the sea, lost for good. It was not the first time the waves had wrecked this small tower planted on the head of the outer breakwater, and as on every other occasion it was put back into service. Such is the fate of a light that stands exactly where the sea hits hardest.
What to see
The harbour's first light was little more than a metal post with a lamp on top. The present one dates from 1950: a low white concrete cylinder, barely a metre and a half tall, with balcony and lantern, at the end of the outer breakwater. The lantern is white and the dome grey metallic; the light sits 11 metres above sea level and gives one white flash in a 3 second period, visible up to 9 nautical miles, a little over 17 kilometres.
This is a working lighthouse, not a retired monument: solar powered, fully automated, operated by the Italian Navy, which lists it under the code 1671 E.F. Anyone arriving by sea sees it flashing before they can make out the tall houses of the town.
Visiting
It is a few minutes on foot from the centre, along the mole that closes the harbour: that structure was completed in 1624, in the days of the Republic of Genoa. No opening hours and no ticket, and the tower cannot be entered; the point of the walk is to reach the end and turn around. In strong wind the breakwater takes the spray and can be closed off: if so, do not push your luck.
Our editors' tip
We go at sunset, when the boats come back in and the light starts its flash every 3 seconds: from the tip you see the whole row of painted houses and, behind them, the Portofino headland. Take a jacket even in summer, the wind there gives no discounts.