Bergeggi, Noli, Spotorno & Finale Ligure

Diving splits between shore entries and short boat runs: centres sit in Spotorno, Noli, Savona and Vado Ligure, and the reserve's sites are minutes away by RIB — Il Pifferaio is under ten minutes out. Diving inside the reserve is regulated: only centres on the park's authorized list may run dives, visits go through the park's own authorization form, and boats tie to dedicated mooring buoys rather than anchoring. The wind writes the day's plan — south winds are blocked by the shape of the gulf, north and north-west winds are usually still diveable, and it is the grecale from the north-east that calls dives off once it passes roughly 15–18 knots and 90 cm of swell.

The reserve holds the wall diving: Il Pifferaio slopes gently from 9 to 18 m past small caves, La Franata is a rock slide from 1 to 30 m whose boulders shelter octopus, morays and congers above an algae meadow at 15 m, and Il Canalone is a vertical face at 8–30 m carrying sponges, nudibranchs, fanworms and anemones, with damselfish, bream, dentex, amberjack, groupers and barracuda over it. Offshore, the secche stack by depth — Secca delle Stelle at 13–28 m, Platea at 18 m, Garage at 16–32 m — down to the deep plateaus: catshark egg cases and a colony of false black coral at Corallo Nero (32–40 m), and a pinnacle wrapped in anthias and gorgonians at Secca dei Ramoni (42–52 m).

The spread of certification gates is the point of the place. A new diver has honest ground at Il Pifferaio and Secca delle Stelle, an AOW card opens Marassi and the Canalone, a deep card opens Corallo Nero, and technical divers get Ramoni, Bibiz and the Tyfliss, a French transport ship with its deck at about 42 m on a 50 m seabed. It suits divers who want protected, regulated rock diving with a ladder to climb over a week, and macro photographers working the invertebrate life; divers hoping for big animals or warm water in winter have no reason to come.