There is something almost theatrical about Portofino. The little harbour, the tall painted houses leaning shoulder to shoulder, the yachts arranged as if by a set designer: it is a place that performs, and the season you choose decides which…
Supporting Guide
Where to Stay in Portofino
Portofino is tiny, and that changes everything about where you sleep. The village wraps around a single horseshoe harbour, a cluster of ochre and rose houses stacked above fishing boats and, these days, the occasional improbable yacht. The whole place…
Where to Eat in Portofino
Portofino is tiny, and that tininess shapes everything about eating here. The harbour is really one perfect curve of pastel houses around a piazzetta the size of a large drawing room, and almost every table worth having looks straight at…
The Beaches Near Portofino: Paraggi and the Coves
The first thing I tell anyone who arrives on this stretch of the Ligurian Riviera dreaming of golden sand is to adjust the picture in their head, gently. Portofino is one of the most photographed corners of Italy, but it…
The Best Photo Spots in Portofino
Portofino is tiny, and that is precisely what makes it so photogenic. The whole village folds around a single deep-green harbour, the pastel houses stacked so tightly they seem to lean on one another, and everything you might want to…
The Best Things to Do in Portofino
The trick with Portofino is that it is tiny, and knowing this changes everything about how you spend your time. The village wraps around a single small harbour, and you can walk from one end of it to the other…
How to Get to Portofino (and Get Around)
Portofino is small, so small that the question of how to reach it matters more than the map suggests. There is no motorway exit with its name on it, no airport, no train station of its own. The village sits…
The Perfect Naples Itinerary
Naples rewards the traveller who gives it time. It is tempting to treat the city as a one-night stopover on the way to Capri or the Amalfi Coast, but that is a mistake; Naples is one of the great cities…
Day Trips from Naples
Naples sits at the centre of one of the richest corners of Italy, and this is one of the great joys of basing yourself here: you can spend your days out among Roman ruins, on volcano slopes, or on impossibly…
The Best Photo Spots in Naples
Naples is one of the most photogenic cities in Italy, but it does not photograph the way Florence or Venice do. Its beauty is not tidy; it is the washing strung across a canyon of a lane, the scooter blurring…
Where to Eat in Naples
Naples is, to my mind, the greatest eating city in Italy, and it is not close. This is the birthplace of the pizza, the home of a hundred fried things and a hundred sweet ones, a city where food is…
The Best Things to Do in Naples
Naples wears its heart on the outside. There is no polite distance here, no glass between you and the city; you are simply in it, in the noise and the faith and the football and the fried dough, and it…
