Camaiore is easy to pass on the way between the coast and the hills.
We think it deserves more time than that.
It is a proper small town rather than somewhere created around visitors: people doing their shopping, children cycling through the centre, cafés filling and emptying according to the hour of the day.
We usually arrive without much of a schedule.
Morning
Start with coffee at Pasticceria Del Dotto on Via Vittorio Emanuele.
Have something at the bar, then take something with you for later.
From there, walk rather than drive. The historic centre is small enough that there is little reason to plan a route.
Stop at Cabinet Olivia if it is open and continue through the streets around the centre.
Shopping for home
If dinner at the house is part of the plan, Norcineria Bonuccelli is one of our favourite stops.
We come for salumi, cheese, fresh pasta or something prepared and leave with more than intended.
Shopping for dinner is one of the small pleasures of spending time here rather than simply passing through on holiday.
Leave town
In the afternoon, follow the road inland towards Candalla.
Within a few minutes the buildings thin out, the road becomes narrower and water, stone and vegetation begin to replace the town.
This quick change of landscape is one of the things we love about Camaiore.
Dinner at Candalla
End at Osteria Candalla, where tables sit among the old mill buildings and running water.
It feels much further removed from the coast than the drive suggests.
And that, for us, is Camaiore: ordinary daily life in the centre, with the hills waiting almost immediately behind it.
