Henry Alford, the Anglican cleric who with great attention to detail described in pen and pencil the coast from Cannes to Genoa, was also in Portofino in 1868 where his co-national Montagu Brown, English Consul in Genoa, was his host on the peninsula of Portofino.

From there the two went by foot on an excursion on the mountain to enjoy the wonderful panoramic view. Here they could feel part of an uncontaminated nature so different than western England and inebriate themselves on the lush scents of mediterranean vegetation.

They had left in the morning when it was still cool. Alford, contrary to his friend Montagu who was used to the area, had worn a tweed raincoat which he immediately took off after the first climb.

They walked a long time, chatting as they went. Alford held his cape under his arm.
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In the summer of 1853, the famous composer Richard Wagner, was living the enchanting Mediterranean experience for the first time in Genoa. He was enthusiastic about the city and its surroundings, its people and its atmosphere.

We know from a letter he wrote to his first wife Minna Wagner that “The oleanders were high with flowers, the nights were divine“. From the esplanade of Castelletto the view of the gulf was beautiful: to the east, the powerful mount Portofino, to the west one saw the riviera until the distant mountains of France.

But, as often happens in the summer, the weather, which had been lagner splendid, suddenly changed.

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In love with the beauty of the Ligurian riviera and in particular of the Portofino Coast, Alfred Noack dedicated a large part of his life immortalizing it through photography.He was a true prince of this art, one of the first, and we are indebted to him for his many images of Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino of his time.

He was originally from Dresden, the splendid capital of Saxony, called as is known, the Florence of the north. The city was completely destroyed by allied bombardment the final day of World War II.

Alfred Noack was thus a lover of art and as Giuseppe Mercenaro writes, “... he brought to the exploration of the riviera his background. His eye was nurtured by the city of his origin where painters, some Venetians like Bernardo Bellotto, painted portraits of the city, its bridges, and its parks with near photographic exactness. In Noak, the climate and the artistic legacy of Dresden can be read in his Ligurian landscapes“.

He came to north Italy because in Germany he was overshadowed by his teacher Herman Krone. In Italy instead, and above all in Liguria where he opened his own studio in Genoa in via del Filo 1, he developed his art with success.

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“Home is in those places where the soul is enchained” wrote Voltaire the great french thinker. Fredrich Nietzsche confirms this affirmation and demonstrates how there is a profound connection between the places that have inspired artists and intellectuals and their works.

In his book “Ecce Homo” he defined Portofino as a “small forgotten universe of happiness“.

The magical charm of Portofino is a “waking dream “.

Not many people know that it was here in Portofino that he wrote a good part of “Thus Spoke Zarathustra“. When he wrote the apology for voluptuousness and sensuality he describes the pro- montory in these terms: “In a dream, the Jietzsche last dream of the morning, I found myself on a promontory protruding beyond the world, I was holding a scale and I was weighing the world”.

Of his sojourn in Tigullio, which coincides with one of the most important periods of his life, there exists few traces, and these few come mostly from his own pen, in some letters and in his memoirs. The first part of the above mentioned work was born in 1883 in the “quiet, precious cove of Rapallo, carved between Chiavari and mount Portofino”.

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In 1879 the Rome-Genoa line, an important connection in the structure of the Italian railroad, was completed. Umberto I, who at that time had been king of Italy for a year, decided to travel the entire tract that connected the capital with “La Superba“.

The itinerary included a brief stop in the station of Santa Margherita Ligure.

The king already knew of the local amenities made famous by writers and poets and he loved the little city whose name reminded him of his illustrious spouse. The royal coach arrived at 4:45 in the afternoon of August lst.

Santa Margherita Ligure to which on November 26, 1863 was added the adjective “Ligure” to distinguish it from the many other municipalities in the kingdom with the same name, was a rich city, the richest with this name.

Many emigres had made fortunes in America and the same king could certainly realize this just by looking at the beautiful residences right behind the station.

The activity of fishing gave employment to many people. It was thus that when the king asked the mayor Gio Batta Raggio “Sir, how is the population of your city?” he replied “Sire, a part are fisherman and the rest are rich!!“.

A winter tourism of the elite had already begun and this had contributed not a little to the enrichment of the city.

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What a strange destiny, that of the writer Valery Larbaud!

A great admirer of Italy and translator of the great author from Trieste Italo Svevo, he is, notwithstanding this, little known in Italy outside a restricted circle of specialists in french literature.

Born in Vichy in 1881, he would die there in 1957, the year in which he was struck by a cerebral paralysis. His life was one long voyage.

Thanks in fact to his favorable financial situation he could allow himself to live pursuing his interests. His personal aspirations lead him to wander throughout Europe totally immersing himself in the culture, in the customs, and in the language of the countries that he visited, and in particular those he loved most: Spain, England and above all Italy.

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Who, driven by romantic sentiments, reaches Portofino by boat and pauses for a few brief instants in a sort of enchantment and tries to contemplate the spectacle before him, will have more or less the same vision that struck Guy de Maupassant more than a century ago.

It is through the eyes of this author that one approaches this timeless village.

Yes, timeless! Because they are the same words of Maupassant that can be used to give form to his vision: “a little village, Portofino, that envelopes like the arc of the moon around this calm basin“.

Maupassant arrived here with his yacht the “Bel Ami” in 1889 and was immediately enchanted by the intense greenery reflected in its waters, the houses which form a kind of smiling amphitheater, and the boats which almost seemed to be sleeping in tranquility and silence on the mirror that was the sea.

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The great writer of German naturalism Gerhart Hauptmann came to spend the winter as the guest of his friends the Browns in the castle in Paraggi in 1912, when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his celebrated drama “The Weavers”.

He had already divorced his first wife Marie Thienemann, daughter of a rich banker from Dresden, and was remarried to Margaret he Marschalk with whom he had already taken several trips to Italy.

In that year the duke and duchess of Sassonia-Coburgo-Gotha were also on holiday in Santa Margherita Ligure at the Hotel Continental.

When he was staying in Santa Margherita, Gerhart Hauptmann would often go to the Caffè Colombo, in front of the little gardens where he would offer aperitifs to the Browns.
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