Portofino and Rapallo
The Italian Tourist Bureaus are usually loaded with free maps along with other information and Santa Margherita Ligure was no exception. Armed with the "Vie e Sentieri del Monte di Portofino" map, we walked through the center of town and somehow managed to find the right route up the hill towards Portofino. If I am going to get us lost at all while hiking, it is usually happens trying to get out of town and on the correct trail. ex-Marine has zero map-reading skills and usually spends his time shouting at me, "I thought you said you knew the way"..when we do get lost. (as always...I ignore him.) When I do find the way, my nickname is "Danielle Boonette." I have a Garmin GPS but find it very time-consuming entering waypoints.
Today was a piece of cake. Up Monte di Portofino on trails maintained by the C.A.I. Club Alpino Italiano with incredible views down to the sea and coastline and some areas resembled a botanical park.
We could have hiked down to San Fruttuoso, a small village that was once a pirate den and visit the ancient San Fruttuoso Abbey, but then would have to hike back up the hill to rejoin the trail for Portofino. There was also a steep flight of steps connecting the Abbey to the fishermen's village and the Andrea Doria tower built to defend the villagers from pirates. One alternative could have been taking the boat from Santa Margherita directly to San Fruttuoso and walking around.
From the top of Monte di Portofino, past the amazing Hotel Splendido (with equally amazing rates of about $800 U.S./night including breakfast only) and Splendido Mare (a mere $500 U.S./night including breakfast and these are the out-of-season rates), surrounded by the Villas of the "Rich and Famous" to the Port of Portofino. The small Port was loaded with its usual yachts, people sun-bathing, restaurants and shops with astronomical prices. Portofino deserves its "Rich and Famous" reputation...think Rodeo Drive, Bond Street, 5th Avenue, Oak Street, multiplied into infinity. There wasn't a thing I could afford (oh, maybe a postcard)! Portofino is equisite...
wonderful to visit and gawk....way out of our budget! But if you would like to stay there (and who wouldn't), here is the web address of the Hotel Splendido.
We took the next ferry back to Santa Margherita. The ferries travel up and down the coastline the entire day, stopping at Recco, Camogli and Rapallo.
The next day, we boated to Rapallo a highly developed resort town that is bigger than Santa Margherita and did an in-and-out hike/walk up to Santuario di Montallegro along fields filled with grape vines. Rapallo is set on a beautiful bay with a huge marina and castle. We took our time walking through the old town, a grid of cobbled streets while trying to find the path up to the Santuario. The easy way would have just been taking a small road that led to the same place, the way we came down.
(By the way, the Hotel Fiorina had wonderful croissants for breakfast. A different version, covered with powdered sugar, extremely flaky and delicious.)
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