A long Riviera with a handful of eFoil bases
Start at the mouth of the Gulf of La Spezia. On Via Lungomare in Le Grazie di Porto Venere, SurfOn and Boatable share one base, one business with two brand websites, and SurfOn keeps two more bases at Levanto and at Finale Ligure. In Genoa, Maremoto Genova runs a school for eFoils and jetboards from its shop. Rapallo is the meeting point for two private lessons sold on Freedome, a booking platform that does not name the school behind them. Four places with boards and a fifth sold through a booking site make up everything the region has to offer.
A coast that holds Portofino, the Cinque Terre and Sanremo could carry more. The schools are few; the paperwork is not. Three Coast Guard districts each publish their own regulation and a yearly bathing ordinance, two marine protected areas cover the Cinque Terre and the Portofino promontory, and from May to September a reserved bathing band keeps powered boards away from the beaches except through a launch corridor.
The eFoil in Italy overview takes in Lake Garda, Sardinia and the rest of the country. South of La Spezia the shore runs into Tuscany, and west of Sanremo it becomes the French Riviera.
The nearest eFoil to Portofino, the Cinque Terre, Genoa and Sanremo
Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure
Lessons for the Portofino promontory meet in Rapallo, across the Gulf of Tigullio. Both Freedome listings start there between May and October, one a private hour on a Waydoo Flyer Evo, the other 30 minutes on a jetboard and 30 on an eFoil. The sea around Portofino itself is a marine reserve, and as far as we can tell its rules leave no room for an eFoil.
The Cinque Terre and the Gulf of La Spezia
The five villages lie inside a marine protected area of their own, so the boards start from either end. Levanto, to the north, is 10 to 15 minutes by boat from Monterosso and has a SurfOn base. From Riomaggiore the nearer end is Le Grazie di Porto Venere, on the Gulf of La Spezia, where SurfOn and Boatable share a base. Boatable lists Porto Venere, Lerici and the Cinque Terre as its water.
Genoa
Maremoto Genova has its shop on Via Tabarca and publishes no launch spot. Its rental side delivers boards to your home or your boat, so the meeting point is settled when you book.
Sanremo, Alassio and the western Riviera
SurfOn at Finale Ligure is the nearest base. It gives no street address or beach there. Call +39 328 261 5858 before setting out, so you know where to go.
Guests on a yacht
SurfOn rents eFoils for one day or several, and Maremoto Genova delivers boards to your boat. Between Sarzana and Deiva Marina the La Spezia regulation keeps electric boards out of anchorage areas and at least 100 m from ships at anchor (art. 4, extended to these boards by art. 30), and an eFoil is, to our mind, one of those boards.
eFoil bases on the Ligurian coast
Boatable
Le Grazie, Italy
Via Lungomare 45, Le Grazie, Porto Venere
- Lesson: €150
SurfOn
Levanto, Italy
SurfOn
Finale Ligure, Italy
Maremoto Genova
Genova, Italy
Via Tabarca 70, 16147 Genova
Updated October 24, 2026
SurfOn, Boatable and Maremoto, board by board
SurfOn and Boatable, Le Grazie di Porto Venere
Via Lungomare 45 carries both names, with one phone number. SurfOn sells eFoil courses that promise to take you “from zero to 40 km/h” (about 25 mph), rental for a day or longer, and an Experience Tour, a group outing by boat with eFoils and eSurf boards that covers the Gulf of La Spezia and the Cinque Terre coves. Its instructors are certified by CONI, Italy's Olympic committee, and the safety gear is supplied.
Boatable sells the lessons pitched at a first try. It teaches on a Fliteboard, privately or in groups of up to six. Its Electric Foil Session costs €150 for 60 to 70 minutes on the water, with a private instructor, wetsuit, helmet and buoyancy vest. For the same price the Electric Surf Session puts you on an Awake eSurf, an electric surfboard without a foil. Riders who already fly can rent by the hour.
Maremoto Genova
A shop and school in the city, with private or group lessons on Lift, Waydoo and Audi eFoils and on Jetsurf jetboards, from beginner to expert. Sessions last 30, 45 or 60 minutes and run every day on booking. Its website lists neither a price nor a meeting point, so both are part of the booking.
The Rapallo lessons on Freedome
The private lesson lasts an hour, roughly 10 minutes of theory on the beach and 50 in the sea on a Waydoo Flyer Evo, with the instructor following by boat or on a second eFoil. You must be able to swim. Board, life jacket, helmet, photos and video are included. The second listing splits its hour between a jetboard and an eFoil, for private groups of no more than two.
Lesson prices from Porto Venere to Rapallo
Only a pair of sellers put a price online, and both land between €125 and €150 for about an hour.
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| Operator | Where | What you get | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boatable | Le Grazie di Porto Venere | Electric Foil Session: 60 to 70 min on the water, private instructor, wetsuit, helmet, vest | €150 |
| Boatable | Le Grazie di Porto Venere | Electric Surf Session on an Awake eSurf (no foil), same terms | €150 |
| Freedome listing | Rapallo | Private eFoil lesson, 1 h on a Waydoo Flyer Evo, photos and video | from €125 |
| Freedome listing | Rapallo | 30 min jetboard and 30 min eFoil, up to 2 riders | from €150 |
| SurfOn | Porto Venere, Levanto, Finale Ligure | Courses, rental for one or more days, Experience Tour | - |
| Maremoto Genova | Genoa | Lessons of 30, 45 or 60 min, rental delivered to your boat | - |
Boatable's €150 buys more time on the water, 60 to 70 minutes against the 50 that follow the beach briefing in Rapallo; Rapallo adds the photos and video. For prices elsewhere, turn to the eFoil price guide.
Liguria's three Coast Guard districts, three rulebooks
The Coast Guard in La Spezia covers Sarzana to Deiva Marina, the one in Genoa covers Cogoleto to Camogli, and Savona's runs from Varazze to Pietra Ligure. Each of these maritime districts (circondari marittimi) has a standing boating regulation and a bathing safety ordinance renewed every year. Portofino, Santa Margherita, Rapallo and Sanremo sit outside all three, under other Coast Guard offices with texts of their own. Which corridor a lesson launches through there is the school's call.
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| District | Coast | eFoil in the texts | Bathing band | How far out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Spezia | Sarzana to Deiva Marina: Lerici, Porto Venere, the Cinque Terre, Levanto | Named: Ord. 72/2023, Capo XII "tavole elettriche (c.d. e-foil)" | 200 m from beaches, 100 m from sheer coast, third Saturday of May to third Sunday of September (Ord. 93/2026) | Up to 1,000 m (art. 31) |
| Genoa | Cogoleto to Camogli | Not named; boards go to a separate regulation (Ord. 40/2026 art. 10) | 200 m from beaches, 100 m from rocky coast, at least 1 May to 30 September | - |
| Savona | Varazze to Pietra Ligure, Finale Ligure included | Not named; "e-bike acquatica e simili" in Reg. 79/2022, which we read as covering it | 200 m from beaches, 100 m from cliffs, at least 1 May to 30 September (Ord. 49/2026) | 400 to 1,000 m in season, our reading of art. 62 and 63 |
La Spezia, the one district of the three that writes “e-foil”
The La Spezia regulation, Ord. 72/2023 of 28 April 2023, covers the water from Sarzana to Deiva Marina (art. 1 c. 1), so both bases near the Cinque Terre lie in it. Art. 1 c. 2 brings boards driven by electric motors under it, and its Capo XII is headed “E-bike acquatica e tavole elettriche (c.d. e-foil)”. Art. 31 c. 1 sets the conditions for riding one:
- you are at least 16;
- you stay within 1,000 m of the coast and enter the bathing band only through a launch corridor;
- you wear an approved flotation device and an approved water sports helmet;
- you carry an insurance policy.
Art. 30 extends the general limits of art. 4 to electric boards, and those limits bind an eFoil as well, in our understanding. They allow daylight riding only, in favorable sea and weather, and never within 100 m of a harbor mouth, sea marks or diver buoys, within 50 m of nets, fish or mussel farms and breakwaters, inside ports and their access routes, in anchorage areas, or more than a mile out.
Launch corridors are 10 m wide and run 250 m out between yellow or orange buoys (art. 38 c. 2). Motor craft cross them at 3 knots at most (art. 39), an eFoil among them by our reading, so you idle out and fly only past the last buoy.
The 2026 bathing ordinance
Ord. 93/2026 of 24 April 2026 runs the season from the third Saturday of May to the third Sunday of September and reserves 200 m from beaches and low rocky shores, 100 m from sheer coast, for swimmers (art. 1.1). Inside the marked bathing waters, from 08:30 to 19:30, art. 3.5 bars motor craft, surf, kitesurf, wingfoil, jet skis and similar craft. We would put an eFoil in that group.
In the bay of Porto Venere the bathing band stops 10 m short of the mussel farms (art. 3.3), and nobody may swim within 10 m of a farm (art. 2.1.9).
Genoa and Savona file the eFoil under other names
Genoa, Cogoleto to Camogli
The Genoa bathing ordinance, Ord. 40 of 26 March 2026 as coordinated with Ord. 97 of 27 May 2026, gives swimmers the first 200 m off beaches and 100 m off cliffs or rocky coast during the season, and in any case from 1 May to 30 September (art. 4.1). Outside the launch corridors no craft may pass through that band, electric motors included (art. 4.4).
The ordinance never says “eFoil”. Art. 10 sends powered boards and water e-bikes to a separate Coast Guard regulation, and that text, not the bathing ordinance, sets a Genoa rider's limits.
Savona, Varazze to Pietra Ligure
Finale Ligure falls under Savona, whose boating regulation is Reg. 79/2022 of 27 May 2022. Its Capo XVII deals with water e-bikes “and similar” craft and names only the Manta 5 XE1 hydrofoil e-bike. We read “similar” as taking in an eFoil. If it does, art. 62 asks for a rider of at least 16, an approved life belt, insurance cover, daylight, waves of 0.5 m at most and no more than 1,000 m from the coast, with the bathing band crossed only in a corridor.
Art. 63 keeps these craft out of ports and their access routes and forbids riding within 400 m of the coast in season and 300 m out of season, beyond one mile, and at night. Put the two articles together and a summer rider is left with a band from 400 m to 1,000 m offshore. That is a long way out for a first lesson. Before you book Finale for July, find out from SurfOn where it teaches.
The Savona bathing ordinance for 2026, Ord. 49 of 6 May 2026, reserves 200 m off beaches and 100 m off cliffs behind red buoys (art. 2.1). From dawn to sunset no motor craft may cross that band outside a corridor (art. 2.4), and inside a corridor the limit is 2 knots (art. 7).
Where an eFoil stays out: the Cinque Terre and Portofino reserves
The two best known stretches of this coast are marine protected areas, and neither text mentions an eFoil. Both ban water scooters “e mezzi similari” (and similar craft). An eFoil belongs to that group, on our understanding, which keeps it out of both reserves.
Cinque Terre
The reserve's regulation, the decree of 24 February 2015, carries the ban in art. 15 c. 1. The 2026 supplementary rules (Disciplinare integrativo, art. 5) add zones. Zone A is closed to access and transit beyond what the regulation allows, zone B takes only rowing, sail or purely electric craft at 5 knots at most, and in zone C, within 600 m of the coast, craft keep to 5 knots in displacement mode. A board up on its foil has left displacement mode behind, so the 600 m band is no place to fly even apart from the ban. SurfOn's tour visits coves that only the sea reaches; settle with the crew where the boards will fly.
Portofino
The Portofino regulation, the decree of 1 July 2008, holds the same ban in art. 16 c. 1. The rest of the article is less clear. Zone A is closed to free navigation (c. 4). In zones B and C, electric craft navigate freely (c. 5), while motor craft keep to 5 knots in displacement (c. 8), and the text does not say which applies to an eFoil. With the c. 1 ban on top, we would not fly a board anywhere in the reserve; the Rapallo lessons ride the Gulf of Tigullio instead.
Boat license, age 16 and the one mile line
Italy's pleasure boating code, D.Lgs. 171 of 18 July 2005, has no entry for the eFoil. It does have art. 27 c. 3 lett. c, which lets powered or unpowered boards without CE marking navigate within one mile of the coast, and in our understanding that is the clause an eFoil fits.
Art. 39 c. 1 asks for a boat license beyond six miles, on any personal watercraft, and within six miles for engines above 30 kW. Below those thresholds no license is required and the driver must be at least 16 (c. 3 lett. b). Electric boards are not mentioned, so placing an eFoil under the article is our interpretation. SurfOn and Maremoto publish no minimum age; ask about a teenager before you pay.
None of this is legal advice. Where a school and the Coast Guard office of the district disagree about a board, the office wins. The eFoil rules guide shows how Italy compares with other countries.
A morning lesson, and the months the gulf is warm
The mean wind Windfinder's annual statistics give La Spezia is four knots, with gusts of 7, and Lerici comes out at 6 knots with gusts of 8. The gulf is sheltered water.
On a summer day the sea breeze is all that moves it. Limet, the Ligurian meteorological association, describes a typical one starting around 9 to 10 in the morning and peaking in the afternoon at 6 to 12 knots; in the colder months it does not form. The flattest water goes to whoever holds the first slot of the day.
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| Month | Sea temperature |
|---|---|
| January | 14.4 °C |
| April | 15.3 °C |
| May | 18.3 °C |
| June | 22.5 °C |
| July | 25.5 °C |
| August | 26.0 °C |
| September | 24.0 °C |
| October | 21.1 °C |
| November | 18.4 °C |
Wetsuit or not, June to October is the window, with the water above 20 °C in each of those months. October has one more thing going for it. It is only a little cooler than June and falls outside every summer bathing band, though Savona's regulation, if it does cover an eFoil, still keeps the board 300 m off the coast out of season.
Ferries, parking and getting a board to the water
SurfOn includes parking near its bases, and the Rapallo lesson can be reached by public transport, with a public car park for drivers. Allow about two and a half hours for a Boatable session.
The ferries of the Consorzio Marittimo Turistico 5 Terre Golfo dei Poeti carry hand luggage free up to 50 x 50 x 30 cm. A board bag is far beyond that, so ask at the ticket office before you carry your own eFoil aboard, or rent on the spot (the eFoil rental guide explains how).