It occupies an old warehouse once used for storing fishing gear, stands fifty metres from Porto Pidocchio and looks straight out onto the stretch of sea where the tonnarella is set every year. The Museo della Pesca opened in 2009, promoted by the town of Camogli, the local fishermen's cooperative and the regional fisheries department.
What to see
Inside there are old fishing tools, a photographic gallery on continuous projection and an interactive video station: a wave of the hand is enough to browse the material on the yearly preparation of the tonnarella. The room is tiny, some fifteen square metres of display space, and the story it tells is that of fishing in Liguria and how it has changed.
The main exhibit, though, is outside the door. The tonnarella of Camogli is one of five surviving tuna traps in Italy, and the first records go back to 1603. The net runs for 340 metres, is laid in April 400 metres off Punta Chiappa towards the town, and is taken up between late August and early September. It has been run since 1982 by the Cooperativa Pescatori Camogli, whose fishermen weave the coconut-fibre nets by hand in winter so that they are biodegradable at the end of the season.
Visiting
No road reaches Punta Chiappa. You walk down from the village of San Rocco along the path through San Nicolò di Capodimonte, or take the boat from Camogli harbour. The museum opens mainly in summer and for limited hours, so check them before setting off. Admission is free.
Our editors' tip
We suggest the boat out and the path back: you arrive fresh, the museum takes a quarter of an hour, and then you climb towards San Rocco with the gulf behind you. And we suggest coming between April and August, while the net is in the water: after the videos and the photographs, picking out the markers of the tonnarella at sea changes the whole visit.