Portofino, Italy

Ciao! Today, we arrived in Portofino and believe you me….it was a WOW! It’s very small and quaint and charming and Stu and I have decided that it’s the small places we like best. You can see from the photos that the village of Portofino is a very tiny U-shaped town wrapped around a small harbor.


The Italian Riviera is a very picturesque place to spend your holiday! It is and has been a haunt of the rich and famous for many years.
When we got off of our boat today…we thought we would spend a bit of time in Portofino and then take a boat over to Santa Margarita – 5 km away. But as it turned out – we were so taken with the tiny Portofino that we never left!


Spent the whole day here…walking around, shopping, lunching, gelato-ing. (is that a word?)
One thing we did was climb up to the highest point around the harbor to an old castle or fortress there called Castillo Giorgio……or Fort Saint George. She was built in the mid-1500’s as a fortification against Turkish attacks. The view from up there was spectacular!


In town, there were wonderful little narrow alley-ways that all led to the piazza – where all of the little restaurants were situated….around the harbor. There are several trendy restaurants here.


We sat at one of the outdoor restaurants on the piazza and I think I had the best sandwich EVER! It was on ciabatta bread (but different and better ciabatta than I’ve ever had before). It had an olive tapenade on it with fresh tomato, lots of cheese and anchovies. To die for!! We sat for 2 hours and people watched. It was a beautiful day again today.


We climbed a hill to see the Church of San Giorgio and once up there….followed some narrow pathways into a cemetery. They do it different here folks. There is not room in this tiny village built on a hillside to bury people….so you can see in the photo that many people had been buried behind a wall….with just their names and a bit of information on a marble plaque on the wall.
We did find a delightful piece of art here today and that will be a real treasure to have through the years.


We ended the day right. Stu had a lemon gelato and I had a lemon sparkling water. So refreshing!!!


As we walked back to our tender….we enjoyed looking at the 3 piggy yachts in port today. We called them were “big, bigger and biggest!” It’s fun to watch the crew back these huge yachts into very small spaces. And they are very close to each other, also! Then, the crew would step off and parade around. Again, great people watching!

It’s so funny to see Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Dior, Chanel, etc… set up shop in tiny places like Saint Tropez and Portofino!!! Their store fronts are very small....but they do have a presence here!


We would come back to this spot. You should put it on your radar screens, as well. And it wasn’t horribly expensive like they had warned us. I think they just want the tourists to go elsewhere on day trips and leave tiny Portofino alone. I’m so glad we could experience this today! We loved it!
We cannot believe that it’s time to pack our bags and have them out in the hall by 10 pm tonight. We will arrive in Rome in the morning. If all goes well, we will depart the ship by 10 a.m. and we will find out transfer to our hotel and we will unpack there and begin exploring Rome for the next 3 days. I think we will have internet there……….but can’t say for sure……..so if our blog stops unexpectedly tonight….you’ll know why and we’ll see you on the flip side in the USA after Tuesday!
When in Rome………