Portofino


Portofino

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

The photo at the top of the blog is one that I made of Portofino. It is one of the notable Ligurian towns on the Italian Riviera. Actually there are considered to be two Italian Rivieras, the Riviera di Ponente (loosely meaning where the sun sets) stretches east from from Genoa to France. The most well known town on this stretch is the city of San Remo, a stately old aristocratic resort that seems past it’s prime and scarred by overbuilding. The Riviera de Levanta (loosely, where the sun rises) extends south from Genova to La Spezia. It is on this Ligurian coastline where Portofino and the five villages of the Cinque Terra are located. While these are the best known there other fascinating places to visit – but I’ll save those for another time. Portofino itself is undeniably beautiful, even breathtaking. Strolling the streets however may change your mind. Overpriced shops and restaurants frequented by the overly tanned with way too much disposable income is not my idea of the best place to hang out. The photo below shows the ostentatious yacht on display in the little harbor.

While I clearly have a bit of an aversion to overpriced resorts it is still worth visiting and the peak of my experience there was finding the vantage point where I took the Portofino photo. The graveyard. Graveyards can always be interesting but this one is especially noteworthy. The graves are what I suppose should really be called crypts and are above ground with sometimes charming photos that often bring those who are clearly long dead to, if not life, then a place where they are more than short inscriptions in the marble. The photos below illustrate the charm of this cemetery.

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