UKC

Heading to Liguria next week so if anyone has any tips or recommendations for climbs, beers, pizza, camping etc then all greatly received. Cheers!

Had some superb, post-crag grub at this place a few years back:

https://www.agriturismo.farm/it/agriturismo/liguria/pernambucco-finale-ligu...

The quality of the food was excellent it it just kept on coming, really good value. It's very close to Valle Aquila where there are hundreds of routes so is a great option if you don't want to travel far and are hungry.

If you are not a fan of polished routes then avoid.

The first 4 routes at each crag

The easiest 4 routes at each crag

The most popular 4 routes at each crag

The oldest 4 routes at each crag

Other than that the climbing is great.

Arrive early for parking. Expect families with bambini at the base of the crags

Don't drive up the road beyond the church in Perti. €150 fine for driving past the (not obvious) signs and barrier. Police fined the locals as well!

The Versanti Sud guidebook and app are great for directions to parking and crags.

A 6b at Finale will feel much harder than a 6b at Portland. 

Sotto il Santo in the square in Finalborgo for delicious cheap pasta.  then a gelato from one of the spots opposite.  The food at Quarto di Bue wasn't shabby either.

"I'll just nip up this 6a for a warm-up." said no one ever at Finale....

E

For camping Base Camp Cucco looks great - was a bit of an unofficial van lifers stop when I was there a few years back and is now a proper campsite - perfect location within walking distance of loads of crags.

Finalborgo has loads and loads of good places for food and drink, absolutely none of them are bad. You’ll be spoilt for choice.

Climbs wise - again you’ll be spoilt for choice - lots of the crags have an abundance of old school style technical, crimpy face climbing, but there is steeper stuff if you pick carefully.

Biggest tip is to just forget all about grades - the grading here is harder than anywhere else I’ve ever climbed so just don’t worry about what grade you normally climb, or want to climb, and just enjoy the climbing. You’ll certainly be trying hard enough!

Lastly call in the climbing shops in Finalborgo, they often have topos for new crags that haven’t been published yet, where you’ll find lots of newer routes more in sync with modern grading, and less polish (which if I’m honest, polish wasn’t really that bad!). 

A lot of the older routes you’ll be climbing may have a real mix of in situ gear - threads, rusty pegs, brand new bolts, old bolts etc… I just adopted the mantra of “if I sees it I clips it” so just took loads of draws and clipped the lot, even if it was a rusty old peg with a shiny new bolt another couple of moves above! 
 

Enjoy it, it’s fantastic!

We stayed at Camping Del Mulino last year. I wouldn't recommend it - expensive, small pitches for tents on rocky ground (it's a terraced olive grove) mostly a fair way from the car parking. Might be OK if you are in a van. Best aspect is it's only a short walk to the town centre and beach.

Midway between Finalborgo and Finale on the SP27 there's a small pizzeria called Al Pepe Nero which we thought was brilliant. Really simple grub, proper pizzas and some nice bottled beers. Unbelievably cheap too.

E