Oratorio dei Bianchi & the Dragonara Rock Pools
Few visitors bother to follow the stone steps that descend from behind the Castello della Dragonara to a series of flat, wave-smoothed rocks and natural seawater pools at the base of the headland. This is where Camogli's teenagers swim, local fishermen clean their catch and time appears to have stopped somewhere around 1965.
Finding the hidden pools
From the seaward side of the castle, look for an unmarked stone staircase cut into the cliff face that zigzags down to a broad flat rock platform. The water here is gin-clear, sheltered from the main swell by the headland, and ranges from shallow paddling pools to deep channels where you can dive from ledges.
The tiny 17th-century Oratorio dei Bianchi — a whitewashed confraternity chapel — stands just above the rocks and is occasionally open for services. Its interior is simple and moving: whitewashed walls, a painted wooden ceiling and a single devotional painting. Almost no tourist literature mentions it.
A local's afternoon
Bring a picnic from one of the alimentari on Via Garibaldi — focaccia, olives, a cold bottle of Vermentino — and claim a flat rock in the early afternoon when the sun has moved around to illuminate this side of the headland. The swimming is excellent from June through September.
The rocks also provide an unusual reverse view back toward the harbour: the stacked coloured houses of Camogli rise above the waterline in a way that no postcard quite captures, because it requires you to be in the water looking back.
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