The sunny seaside town of Recco that rose up from the rubble of World War II was—to put it gently—a major missed opportunity in urban planning: bad, blocky apartment houses, cement piazzas with the...

Liguria’s Riviera di Ponente—"of the setting sun"—stretches from Genoa westward to the French border; its name is an apt moniker for a once-favored seaside playground long since faded from glory. Its...