Day 18 - Santa Margherita Ligure (visiting Portofino)

Touristing on the Italian Riviera

Today’s plan was to walk to Portfofino, seeing the sights on the way and at the town, then return on the local bus. And beyond the blog entry in the morning and an afternoon of reading, that’s how it went.

I walked along from the middle to the left end on this map

It was another perfect autumn day on the Italian Riviera. I’ve been blessed with the weather so far everywhere (except for the rain as I was leaving Trieste). The walk to Portofino couldn’t have been nicer. The coastline is dramatic, being largely rocky promintories directly into the Mediterranean, with occasional bays/harbours where people have settled. Of course, there have been people living in the area for thousands of years. Many of the major residences built along the road are hundreds of years old. Absolutely gorgeous.

I’ve tracked my progress on Google Maps as I put these photos together. I had no idea what I was looking at most of the time.

An old fort on the outskirts of SML Now a Brazilian Restaurant	More outskirts of SML	Looking back to the fort from the headland before Paraggi
A grand house looking out to the Mediterranean I could probably live here	The cliff-face road and walk built to permit access	Looking into the bay that is Paraggi
The back street of Paraggi	People have lived here for centuries	Looking back into the bay that is Paraggi

Of course, the pedestrian access to Portofino requires some hill-climbing. However, the path was through a wooded peninsula, so while it was still a steeply-graded path, at least I wasn’t also being baked in the sun (it was just after midday that I was doing this part of the walk). The elevation facilitated some great views too.

The wooded track	Castello di Paraggi Actually, this is somewhere I could live!	‘Suburban’ Paraggi
First view into Portofino Sorry about the J. J. Abrams lens flare effect	Villa Valdameri Mondadori	All the garden on the right of the road belongs to the Villa
Villa Beatrice passed before seeing the first view of Portofino	Looking back to Villa Beatrice	Romantic shot of two villas in the sun

As I came into Portofino, I stepped off the main pedestrian walk down into the lanes and streets back from the obvious tourist area at the port. It is not a large town, like Santa Margherita, constrained by the geography around it.

Residential plaza at the rear of Portofino

Glimpse of the port from back in the houses

The central traffic spot, back from the port.

Frankly, Portofino is a tourist trap. The place was thronging with tourists, typically in tour groups, though many also apparently travelling as a family. The shops were all designed for relieving the tourists of the burden of their cash. Portofino plays to a wealthy tourist trade. Several big brands were present.

One side of the port

The other side of the port

‘Close up’ of the Castello Brown (1557) from the port

I wandered around the quite small port/town centre and then decided to have some lunch. I stumbled into a really nice looking place with great port views that was surprisingly quiet. Most everywhere else was heaving with tourists. I felt that the quiet would suit me, so I got a table. Looking at the menu, I came to realise why it was quiet. The place is associated with a three hat Michelin Restaurant (DaV) and the prices were absolutely set to reflect that! Resigning myself to ‘being on holiday’, I selected a small plate for lunch and a glass of wine from the local region (La Castellata Vermintino) and enjoyed myself. I shouldn’t have to say, but I will for the record, it was exquisite. And some of the sting came out of the price by the provision of bread, bread sticks, an amuse buche, and a bite of gelato encased in white chocolate, a pistachio-encrusted cannoli treat and a piece of fruit panatone-style bread for dessert. The dessert was served by the pastry chef. It was a luxury event and I loved it.

The Splendid Mare hotel and its restaurant My venue for lunch	The view from my table
Amuse buche and bread	Tuna ‘spaghetti’ in anchovy cream with citrus and coriander

After my excellent lunch, I wandered back up to the traffic centre of town, negotiated the purchase of a bus ticket with a machine. It was a bit disconcerting because if you paid with a card, it didn’t issue a ticket. Then you validated your ticket by tapping your card on the ticket reader. Later, when we arrived in SML, we were greeted by bus officials, who asked to see our tickets, and validated my card again (only this time, he just typed in the last four digits). It all worked, but I couldn’t work out why one didn’t tap your credit card on the bus and it charged you the ticket price then. (I was a bit suspicious that it could charge you the ticket price each time you tapped your card.)

The afternoon was lost to some shopping and then a lot of reading. I’m definitely in holiday mode.

Daily facts: Location: SML, Portofino Temp: 26 Weather: Sunny and warm