Mention “the Italian Riviera,” and people are apt to respond, “Yes, the Amalfi Coast is on my bucket list.” But the Amalfi Coast, south of Naples and more than 400 miles away, already has a name: the Amalfi Coast.

The Italian Riviera, or Liguria, on the other hand, stretches between the Tuscan coast all the way to where the country ends at the French border and the Cote d’Azur. Paradoxically, despite its popularity, northern Italy’s Liguria is one of the country’s more misunderstood places, even among the reasonably well-traveled.