How should I not have fallen for Portofino? Sir Clough Williams Ellis said when he built Portmeiron, Italianate village, in Wales,UK , inspired by Portofino’s beauty. Portofino, as the name indicates in Italian language, is more than a fine port of the Italian region of Liguria, its beauty is stunning!
Driving down from the mountains of Liguria towards its coast someone needs to have real guts because the roads are very narrow with lots of turns and twists. The picture above is the only one I managed to take by succeeding for a moment to overcome my horror!
The same happened along the coast from Rapalo to Portofino, narrow twisted road populated with uncountable number of vespas! Along this road there were the most amazing Italianate villas perched on the cliffs.
The port itself is a tourist resort mainly for rich Americans arriving with their super yachts. Somehow I felt that the talented Mr. Ripley will make his appearance through the crowd.
Portofino is beauty by itself but I had the same feeling as in Venice : the buildings are going to collapse from moment to moment. The recession in Italy is going from strength to strength, for long time now, without showing any sign of recovery. For that reason, it is worth visiting this part of the Italian Riviera in the near future!