Genoa, the capital city near Portofino Italy – one of th eight wonder of the world – is a town full of life and activity that reflect the character of her inhabitants. Writers and politicians who saw her before the historical events of the XVII century and her altered economical circumstances of the XVIII, called her Superba (haughty).

Heine disparaged her XIX century aspect whereas her ancient splendour, that was blossoming again in her new middle-class and merchant princes during the XIX century was enthusiastically praised by De Musset, Flaubert and Michelet, Nietzsche and Wagner.

Special guest that we have reported their presence also in Portofino Italy.

Genoa is a lovely town that the tourist must conquer.

A restless town continually changing. She has flattened her hills to widen her squares, filled in valleys to lay down new roads, built new edifices near old ones with such on innate sense of appropriateness that at first sight the change in topography are not striking.

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On the eastern side of the extreme point of the Peninsula of Portofino is a narrow, curved creek, which Nature would seem to have taken under her special protection.

Though the sea may beat with all its fury against the promontory’s conglomerate cliffs, the strength of its waves is almost spent ere they break upon the little semicircular beach of this favoured cove.

The cold winds which sometimes blow from the mountains are powerless, too, to harm it, since it is enclosed, on one side by the thickly-wooded ridge of the peninsula, and on its two other sides by high hills, densely clad with olives.

Within this remarkably sheltered spot lies Portofino, with its houses arranged in curves along the quays and in front of its narrow lido as snug and as sunny a little port as ever a mariner could desire, and so picturesque that I know not where you would find a prettier.

A row of multi-coloured boats are drawn up on to the beach, in front of which is a little piazza, The Worldwide famous Piazzetta, planted with acacias.

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The pure Genoese Cuisine is a speciality that really survives only in private families or small popular inns in, and around town; for elsewhere the food one gets is a medley that the constant immigration of families from other parts of the country, especially from Tuscany, has more or less nationalised.

In the larger and higher-class restaurants Genoese specialities are often served, but they are more easily found in small fishing villages or hamlets up in the mountains where Tuscan influence has not yet arrived.

The XIX century was its golden age, and with the revival of historical research and investigation into customs and traditions of Liguria, a first collection of cookery recipes was published by G. B. Ratto with his “Cuciniera Genovese”; in it the author not only gave excellent instructions and advice on the proper preparation of savoury food, but reminded cooks that they were artists requiring a delicate palate and good taste to maintain intact their sensibility and instinct, these being more necessary to them than scales to achieve perfection.

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The name of Gilberto Govi is known not only in Liguria but also in all those places where Ligurians, in the course of their long history, have brought their presence, their “Genoesity“.

A language, that for centuries was a language enriched by words from every part of the world both ancient and modern, was reestablished in all of Italy by the theater of Gilberto Govi.

Perhaps this personality will be of little interest to a non-italian reader, not however in America where there are numerous descendants of genoese immigrants, and especially in Argentina.

In the Boca, for example, which is the section of the port of Buenos Aires until very recently Genoese was spoken.

Gilberto Govi was born in Genoa but his family from Emilia.

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Ernst Bloch, who was part of that intellectual circle in Heidelberg that included the sociologist Max Weber, Karl Jaspers, the founder of German existentialism, and the hungarian Marxist philosopher Gyorgy Lukaks, was a great German philosopher of Jewish origins who opposed the Nazis and left Germany in exile in many European cities and then in America.

In 1927 the philosopher stayed for quite some time in Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure in a little house in the hills with the young polish girl Karola. Twenty years younger than him, she would eventually become his second wife.

There was still no electricity in that house and the philosopher had to write by the light of an oil lamp which he brought with him whenever he came to Italy.

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The Grand Imperiale Hotel, in Santa Margherita Ligure an obligatory visit for all who come to Rapallo, Santa Margherita, and Portofino, was constructed in 1889 as a luxury villa for the Costa family, industrialists who had made a fortune in Corsica in the area around Ajaccio.

Upon returning to their homeland they had the desire to build a splendid residence in a location with one of the most beautiful natural landscapes of the Portofino harbour.

As Santa Margherita Ligure was becoming an ever more sought after Mecca for rich and noble northern Europeans who wanted to spend the winter in a mild climate, the Costas thought to transform their villa into a Grand Hotel.

View the panorama from Imperale Hotel in Santa Margherita Ligure.

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There are four beautiful hotels which belong to the Ciana family: The Continental, The Laurin, The Metropole, and The Regina Elena. The Ciana family also contributed greatly to bringing the Portofino Bay to the attention of foreigners.

The Continental Hotel, which is found just below the Imperial Hotel and thus in one of the most beautiful spots in Santa Margherita Ligure, can boast of many illustrious guests, among them Minna, the wife of the composer Richard Wagner and her son Sigfried, along with the orchestra conductor Von Buelow. Besides The Hotel Continental, the Russian and German dukes who before the first world war usually spent the winter in Santa Margherita Ligure would also stay at the Metropole and at the Regina Elena along the road to Portofino.

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“The splendid site with the barbaric name” is the way the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio defined the “Portofino Kulm“, the hotel in the “liberty” style that was built by Sebastiano Gaggini at the beginning of this century.

Gaggini, besides being fond of his native Camogli, was also in love with Portofino Mountain and with the riviera of the Portofino Bay. In constructing this jewel called the hotel of the “vetta” (peak) because it sits in fact high atop the mountain.

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