Climbing in Finale Ligure - Italy
Finale Ligure is a famous climbing destination, not only for the quality rock and multi-pitch walls, but also for the marvelous surroundings: old villages with narrow streets, super tasty food & coffee, mountains and sea - all in the same place. It feels like staying there forever!
Lago d'Idro.. on the way to Finale
The Van rolled over 1200km, to bring us to Finale... and it only broke once! We were on the way, 4 and half days... This car goes slowly, but surely.
Sunrise somewhere, on the way.. 
Lago d'Idro, with interesting rock formations
1. Finale
Finale Ligure is a village on the shore of the sea - that spreads its tentacles towards the mountains in three separate valleys. The climbing areas are spread all over the hills that surround those valleys. Big walls, small hidden cliffs, rock towers or weird caves - there is everything you can imagine!
Tre Frati, a rock tower; route: 6a 
The quality of the rock here is very good. It is a solid type of limestone, frequently with pockets and sharp edges and even tufas here and there. It can be quite harsh for the hands in the first few days, but then, it gets much better, once you get used to the style. The bolting is very generous on most of the crags, sometimes a bit too generous I would say..
Super nice pockets, I love them! 
Inspecting a route on Falesia della Coccinella 
Caves are "a must see" here. Even if the overhang routes are quite hard, you can always just fool around doing some bouldering, enjoy lunch in a nice cozy place or spend a night bivouacking next to the crags. No matter what, you will surely enjoy bumping into one of the hidden caves around here.
They even left the quickdraws on this route.. 
Just playing around
Most of the routes are accessible from Finalborgo, the northern part of Finale Ligure village, and the place where we had our "base-camp". It is a pleasure to have a pizza here at the end of a climbing day!
Finalborgo and the sea.. 
For the multi-pitch enthusiasts, there are plenty of routes to choose from. Three, four, five, six.. ten? How many pitches would you like?
Second pitch here, Placa dei Maleducati, route: Degna de tua sorella, 6a 
Gorges, canyons, waterfalls in the area, none of them should be missed.
Canyon with waterfall
Overpacking..?
2. The most friendly climbing-place on Earth
On the way to Finale, we made a short break in an italian town called Bolzano, where we were pleasantly surprised to find a nice climbing area - one of the most friendly so far. The rock here is a type of red-ish granite, with long cracks and squared blocks. The holds are quite spaced sometimes; nice climbing style.. Routes are from 5c to 7b.
Paintings on the way up 
Shelter for climbers, next to the crags, including topo, planted flowers and a guest book 
Route, 6a
Bolzano at sunset, before the storm 
Topo, Bolzano granite cliffs 