The night forecast was for more northerlies and northeasterlies, with southerlies on Friday. Heading straight to Genoa would see us arrive in the dark (major city, bright lights, complicated port, lots of shipping, Italian), after probably motoring against a head wind much of the way. We decided to stop.
Finale Liguria is a small, tourist-oriented resort tucked under Capo Noli, about eight miles south of Savona. We couldn't get into the marina as it was full so we anchored off the beach in 8.5m of water on sand. The breeze did get up a little, but we didn't feel it as the spot is well protected from the north and west. It is completely open to the south and east, and the easterly swell kept us rolling all night. There was no noise ashore though, despite the evident tourism; not a clubby place.
At 0900 the lifeguard kayaked out and told us we had to move on; the swimming day was about to begin. We sorted ourselves out, hoiked the anchor up and left.
This is written under sail en route to Genoa. It's very hot but we have at most 8kts of breeze and are meandering along at about 2.5kts. If we had more energy we might put the cruising chute up, but we have hope that the forecast WSW F3 will appear to shove us along. So far it's a southerly F2. It is lovely to be actually sailing though, and we're not in any hurry after all.
PS - added the next day in Genoa - we did in the end put the chute up and got another .5 to 1kt of speed for it - evidence, as if it were needed - of the Pardey dictum that being able to keep your boat moving in light airs is as important to a cruiser as the kit to survive heavy weather.