Half a century before social media, Portofino was already the set: in the 1950s the Piazzetta hosted Bogart, Taylor and Europe's royals, and "I Found My Love in Portofino" travelled the world. The village — barely four hundred and fifty residents — remains the fishermen's one: tall narrow houses painted in trompe-l'oeil, wooden gozzi in the water and the most photographed harbour bowl in the Mediterranean.
What to see
The Piazzetta on the harbour, the drawing room where everything converges; the climb to San Giorgio and Castello Brown, the garden-fort showing the whole bowl from above; and the walk to the lighthouse at Punta Capo, fifteen minutes among pines and agaves with strategically placed benches over the blue. The Christ of the Abyss, in neighbouring San Fruttuoso bay, is the boat trip to pair.
Visiting
Portofino is toured in two hours, lived in a day. The Park trails — from Santa Margherita or over the mount — give the finest arrival; the village is pedestrian and prices are the stuff of legend: know it, and enjoy the Piazzetta coffee as an entrance ticket.
Getting there
Boat from Santa Margherita Ligure, Rapallo or Camogli — the proper way; otherwise bus or the seafront walk from Santa Margherita (an hour). By car: discouraged — the road is narrow and spaces counted.
Our editors' tip
Arrive on foot by the high trail and drop onto the village as it opens suddenly through the pines: an entrance the boats cannot give. And stay for the blue hour, when the last ferries take the day-trippers away: the Piazzetta with lights on and gozzi motionless returns to the village — and for half an hour, to you.