During my trip to Italy, I had been a certified scuba diver for about nine months, so I try to get down as often as possible to reinforce what I’ve just learned because otherwise you can die. No biggie.

Plus, I would love to dive in as many seas as possible, so given we were already on the Mediterranean, I had to go in.

From the Cinque Terre, we got in the car at 6:00 am to make it to Santa Margherita Ligure by 8:00 am (it was about another two-three hours to Nice). Santa Margherita Ligure is right next to super fancy Portofino and where Portofino Divers is located. I found them through a really basic internet search for English speaking dive companies in the area with good review. They checked all the boxes.

We signed up for two morning dives. The water was very, very choppy with huge swells, which we knew from our time swimming in the Cinque Terre (see my post about our time there and how to best play in the water).

Unfortunately for them, the two divers we were with got incredibly sea sick on the boat, throwing up before they even got in. They only made it one dive and then took a gelato break in Portofino while we went on the second dive.

Our first dive took us to Jesus of the Abyss, a statue of Jesus with his hands to the sky that someone sunk. The rest of that dive and the second we swam along reefs. The colors aren’t crazy vibrant, but we found some humongous fish and huge schools, so it was definitely worth it and a lot of fun.

The boat ride is gorgeous — amazing houses, cute ports, and rugged, bare cliffs.

Bruno and his crew were terrific — knowledgeable, nice, and great at taking care of the divers. They evaluated everyone well and knew who was calm and who needed a little extra support.

Definitely go if you can!