Liguria · about 4 km from Santa Margherita Ligure
La Colombara
- Max depth36 m
- CertificationCavern
Diving and fills
Dive here with
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Fills nearby
- Fill stationDiving Group PortofinoAir, nitrox (up to 40%), trimix, O₂Route ↗
- Fill stationPortofino DiversNot published — ask (technical trimix boat dives leave from here)Route ↗
- Fill stationNereo SubNot published — askRoute ↗
What it looks like
SCUBA @ Grotta della Colombara, Portofino, Italy
All 2 videos and posts
Videos and posts
From other divers, via YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. They only load when you click; after that, Google's or Meta's privacy rules apply.
- Facebook
Moonlight Sub Diving Center Rapallo
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Other people's footage, not advice: how someone else dives here says nothing about what suits your team. Dive within your training.
The dive
In one dive you see three underwater caves, mostly fissures between boulders. You start deep and work back up a sloping wall with red and yellow gorgonians.
Profile and sections
In one dive you see three underwater caves, mostly fissures between boulders. You start deep and work back up a sloping wall with red and yellow gorgonians. Cave 1 has Parazoanthus and red coral. The shallowest cave is the largest, with two entrances, an air chamber and a roomy 'amphitheatre'. Along the way you meet morays and congers. Air quality in the air chamber has not been measured: keep breathing from your regulator.
Another dive centre gives caves at -8, -20 and -33 m.
- Depth and profile
- Wall to -36 m · cave 1 at ~-36 m · cave 2 at ~-22 m · fissure at ~-10 m into the largest cave (two entrances, air chamber) · AMP site card: max -30 m
- Configuration
- Small caves and fissures: backmount works (recreational groups dive them), sidemount is more agile. CCR works.
- DPV: Not DPV-suitable
- Scooters are not allowed in AMP Portofino (except with authorisation for disabled divers); the caves are short anyway.
Who can dive where
- At least Cavern
- Configurations: Backmount / twinset / Sidemount / CCR / Small cylinders / no-mount (speleo sumps)
- Goes down to 36 m (trimix or deco may be needed)
This is how the planner decides who in your team may dive this cave. Rules your own trip adds (organizer, a mail, the AI) show with your trip.
How to get there
Boat only. AMP Portofino zone B, site 7: moor on the AMP buoy and stay within 50 m of it. Independent diving only by day with an AMP diving card and daily authorisation, otherwise via an authorised dive centre.
Around La Colombara
Fills3 fill stations · nearest 4 km
Diving Group Portofino
Via Favale 25, 16038 Santa Margherita Ligure (GE)
Air, nitrox (up to 40%), trimix, O₂
Not published — ask
Own filling station with four compressors (~2,050 l/min) and ~400 cylinders, shared with the second base in Rapallo (Via Amerigo Vespucci 2C, opposite the harbour, +39 0185 1870542). Rebreather courses. Runs trips to the Grotta dei Gamberi (cavern card required for the cave). Walk-in fills for visitors: ask.
Portofino Divers
Via Jacopo Ruffini 47, 16038 Santa Margherita Ligure (GE)
Not published — ask (technical trimix boat dives leave from here)
Mon–Fri 8:00–19:00, Sat–Sun 7:30–19:30
PADI and GUE centre (e.g. GUE Fundamentals and DPV 1, PADI Tec 40–50). Technical boat dives to wrecks and deep reefs, only for trimix-certified divers or students. Daily boat dives in AMP Portofino.
Nereo Sub
Via Berninzoni 124, 17028 Spotorno (SV)
Not published — ask
Daily 8:00–19:00 (ask about the season)
Dive centre authorised by the AMP Isola di Bergeggi (no. 01 on the 2026 list) for diving in the AMP; the Grotta marina di Bergeggi is currently closed to divers.
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Caves nearby2 within 59 km
News
All (2)
Nearby
Articles about cave diving that name a place within 25 km of this site, but no cave by name. They're not necessarily about this site.
- Tragedy in the Maldives: revealed how the five divers trapped in an underwater cave died ↗
More on this (7)
- Cause of death of the five Italian divers who died in a cave in the Maldives revealed, five months after the tragedy ↗
- Italian divers who died in Maldives cave ran out of gas ↗
- Italian divers dead in the Maldives, autopsies indicate anoxia: it remains unclear why they did not leave the cave ↗
- Maldives, "Italian divers died from total lack of oxygen": here's what happened in the cave ↗
- Maldives, the 5 Italian divers died without oxygen: the mystery remains about what happened in the cave ↗
- Maldives divers, how they died in the cave: the truth from the autopsies on the bodies. "Total lack of oxygen", what happened ↗
- Maldives, the five Italian divers died in the cave from lack of oxygen. Hypotheses of poisoning or shark attack ruled out ↗
- Bergeggi Island, Carabinieri divers among caves and seabeds: tarpaulin removed and new cavities mapped ↗
Access and rules change: check what applies locally right before your trip. Source: GDELT Project and the news feeds of diving magazines. Search for more news ↗ Searched automatically, last on 13 Nov 2026.
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