Check Rates at the Splendido

First of all we wont to clear some doubt regarding which is the best time to arrive in Portofino Italy. The season start with the easter festivity and then closes at the end of September with the International yacht’s salone in Genoa.

After this point every boutique is closed, hotels are closed, every bar or lounge bar or events or anything.

We don’t suggest to arrive in Portofino from October to March.

So, this is the bets time to reserve Hotel in Portofino with good deals.
We want to remember You that with us you can book and pay directly the Hotel later.

We suggest the Piccolo Hotel, in front of a very romantic bay at 5 minutes by walk from Portofino and, even if it need to be refurbished the Hotel Nazionale. Pratically you open a window and you are on the most famous Piazzetta of the world.

If you are looking for luxury service at the right price, with good deals we suggest the 5-Star Excelsior Palace at the begin of Rapallo. You have big room with all confort, two splendid swimming pools, the one outside has an incredible view of the Portofino bay. There is also a Spa e Wellness center.

The only thing is that you are half hour from Portofino. So, if you have a car or a Limo this will be not a problem. You can spend also an half day to visit Rapallo.

So, we starting now to list some good advice from our Guests on where to eat.

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To talk about Nicola Abbagnano means in a certain way to talk about Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino, the cities he chose as his second home and for which he demonstrated his love to the point of leaving in writing his wish to be buried there.

Abbagnano was a swallow who returned to this city every summer from the fog of Padania to rejoice over the sea, the green of the hills, the climate and perhaps even of that unforgettable sunset of Portofino that Andrè Gide called I’heure bleu (the blue hour).

A magic moment, it lasts only a few moments in which the whole environment, including the air, turns a tender blue, a poetic atmosphere that Abbagnano certainly enjoyed.

He, who vibrated with a gentleness that was expressed in his clear eyes full of light, and a smile sketched on his lips.

Observing him, with his refined and good natured countenance, he seemed a poet, a dreamer more than a philosopher, immersed in the severity of his discipline. And yet, a poetic vein runs through all his work.

In an interview published ten years ago in Santa Margherita Portofino, he was asked if he fit more optimistic or more pessimistic. To which he responded, Like everyone with good sense I make an effort to be a realist and I say to myself ‘Let’s try to see where the dangers are and where the good things are. Let’s direct our efforts towards the positive elements in life.

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Spring 1953: Truman Capote makes his entrance in Portofino in a red Renault accompanied by Jack Dunphy, his lifetime companion, and a noisy couple of dogs.

Together they rent an apartment over the Delfino Restaurant, on the top floor with a grand terrace, and there they stayed until the end of October.

He was born in New Orleans in 1924. When he took this long vacation he was already a celebrity, known in his country for his gifts as a brilliant writer and for his intemperate and transgressive life. He had his literary debut in 1948 with the novel “Other Voices, Other Rooms“, followed the next year by a collection of short stories entitled a “Tree in the Night” and in 1951 by the novel “The Grass Harp”.

By 1953 he had already written for the theater and for the cinema.

He came to Portofino with the intention of working in peace and quiet on the screenplay for “The House of Flowers“, and at the same time on a project for a new collection of short stories.

The distractions of summer proved to be many however, and he let a good part of the time slip by.

At the same time, in Portofino, there were many gatherings of a whole slew of friends and celebrities.

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The great American actor Rex Harrison – in the picture with Audrey Hepburn - famous for his brilliant interpretation in the film “My Fair Lady“, had a villa built above the Hotel Splendido in Portofino that cost him $50,000 in the first years after the war.

Previously, in the same spot, there was a bunker in which the Germans had mounted a battery of cannnons. Harrison went to live there with his wife Lili Palmer, an actress of German origin.

Lovers that they were of entertaining guests and of the “party set”, they invited half of Hollywood to Portofino, where Clark Gable, Jennifer Jones, David O. Selznik and many other legends of the cinema were guests at the Spendido Portofino.

We narrate an interesting anecdote taken from the book by Antonio Nannicini, Letter From Portofino.

When Harrison won the Oscar, he returned to Portofino and wanted to re-celebrate the event with his friends from Portofino at “La Gritta” the famous American bar that faces the wharf.

Naturally they had been drinking a bit, anymore I couldn’t say, but in the euphoria of the moment the golden statue wound up in the sea and afriend had to dive in the water to retrieve it.

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Beppe Croce who was for many years president of Yacht Club Italiano, loved the sea, sailing, and Portofino.

His many responsibilities often pulled him far away, but it was here that he loved to return, to see his house, his family, and his friends, to relax in the culture and world that surrounded him since boyhood.

We were great friends and perhaps I should have written a long elegy, but I’m certain that even he wouldn’t have wanted it even though I believe that my words would be inadequate.

A Portofinian, always a resident here, he nurtured for this town a love that was surely requited.

I think that the people of Portofino, and I along with them, love to remember him simply; smiling in the Piazzetta, elegant and always open to listen to everyone about everything, a grand gentleman and ambassador to the world for this community.

Beppe Croce
1898 – 1986

Portofino World, a world apart.

(Portofino) – Regarding the warning post to the closing night of drinkable water we advice our Guests that the situation is reverted to normality.

If you have a Villa, please be carefully to use water for your plants only in: Monday, Thursday and Sunday from 7am to 10am.

So, all hotels restaurants, bar and boutique are totally functionings.

Portofino World, a world apart.

(Portofino) – Starting from tonight until a new date, in Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure will closed the drinkable water during the night from 1am to 7am. This decision is been taken for a critical water availability.

If you have a plan to came in Portofino, the only Hotel with autonomy drinkable water is the 5 Star Splendido Main Unit Hotel (no Splendido Mare). If you are worried about this situation, we suggest to go there. At this time different rooms are available,

We will update you when the situation will revert normally.

Portofino World™, a world apart.

(Portofino) – An incredible theft happened to the main unit of the famous Splendido Hotel in Portofino. There, the professional burglar, has found and stole – in the Suite 242 – 3 thousand euro in cash and jewelry insured worth for a total of one million euros.

So, we suggest to use the max diligence. If you have jewelry without insurance, will be better to deposit at the hotel’s bureau.

PortofinoWorld.com, a world apart.

The great musician Victor de Sabata, born in Trieste in 1892, conductor of the orchestra of teatro La Scala, an academic of Santa Cecilia, awarded the Gold Medal for Arts and Letters of the city of Milan, and decorated with many Italian and Foreign honours.

After a serious heart attack in 1947 due to overwork while in America, he spent a lot of time in Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino because of its ideal mild climate.

Here, where he wanted to spend the last years of his life, he was very close to the young pianist Piero Lo Faro.

Recognizing his talent, he wanted to encourage him and attended manie of his concerts.

A person with a princely demeanor and a distinctly aristocratic presence, de Sabata often used to visit his friend Piero in his beautiful villa and take walks along the beach of Portofino. He lived in a suite in the Metropole Hotel and then in the Regina Elena where his great friend and doctor Ettore Alberti went to cure him and give him comfort.

He died in the Casa di Salute Villa Attilia, a sanitorium, in December of 1967.

Victor de Sabata
1892 – 1967

Portofino World, a luxury world apart.