Day trips to the small fishing village of Portofino are one of the most popular excursions for visitors to Genoa and provide an essential complement to any visit to the Ligurian capital. The village, which has been one of the most exclusive small resort destinations on the Italian Riviera since the early twentieth century, sits around thirty-five kilometres south-east of Genoa and is reached easily by train, by tour boat or by self-driven car. The village itself is one of the smallest principal resort destinations in Italy, with a permanent population of around three hundred and fifty inhabitants and a central waterfront covering only around three hundred metres of harbour frontage. The pastel-coloured fishermen houses around the small natural harbour and the dramatic forested headland that protects the bay have made Portofino one of the most photographed individual locations on the Italian coastline. The standard day-trip option from Genoa runs by train on the main line to Santa Margherita Ligure, the slightly larger neighbouring resort town around five kilometres from Portofino. From Santa Margherita the connection to Portofino is by local bus, by water taxi or by walking along the famous coastal road of the Tigullio peninsula. The total journey time is around an hour and a quarter from Genoa central station. The various organised tour operators in Genoa also run scheduled boat tours that combine the visit to Portofino with stops at the various smaller villages of the Tigullio coast including Camogli, San Fruttuoso and Paraggi. The boat tour option provides a particularly distinctive perspective on the coastline, with the various small bays, fishing villages and cliff-top monasteries visible from the sea in a way that road or rail tours cannot match. A typical day visit to Portofino includes around three to four hours in the village itself, sufficient to walk around the small harbour, visit the parish church of San Martino on the hillside above, follow the path up to the small Castello Brown at the head of the bay and enjoy the panoramic view from the lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula. The various restaurants around the harbour, particularly during the busy summer season, are notoriously among the most expensive in Italy, and many day-trippers prefer to take a packed lunch from one of the smaller bars in the surrounding area.

Type: Activity

Address: Genoa, Italy