CHAPTER I

The events topography and SOCIO-ECONOMIC BETWEEN nineteenth and twentieth

1.1. - The Grand Tour in the first half of the twentieth century.

From the second half of the eighteenth century Italy, thanks to its mild climate and its artistic beauty, becomes a favorite destination for travelers of the Grand Tour [1] Especially following the discovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii, which took place respectively in 1738 and 1748. Not surprisingly, in those years, these important events had begun to draw from all of Europe visitors, represented by members all'aristocrazia that from those years and especially nell'Ottocento give life to the tourism Elite . And in the early nineteenth century some noble British travelers will be the first to discover Portofino and making it famous as to be today described as "a pearl in its shell preserved" [2] , A jewel of European tourism.

As the plant in topographical late eighteenth century, while the old town of Portofino, seems to be of Roman origin because the roads are arranged according to the usual system of castrum [3] The other type of heart "to host" for the presence of houses arranged around the square, very close to each other, given the paucity of space, and around two branches of moles (Figg.1-2) .

The center also features arcades, shops and arches rampanti that a knight of the roads, were used to join the facades of two buildings and build strengths to provide the best kept static isolates (Figg. 3-4) while Mount characterized by mule tracks and footpaths [4] .

For the first years dell'Ottocento the village had 1300 inhabitants and belonged to the Republic of Genoa, whose domain was also generated bitter disputes between the two major Genoese patrician families Fieschi and Doria. With the Congress of Vienna (1815), as throughout Liguria, the small town becomes part of the kingdom Sardo Piemontese, and from now on the local economy, hitherto based only on fishing and subsistence farming , Begins to differentiate, since a large proportion of the population is always more oriented towards the occupation of the surf as some residents become owners of sailing ships with a head master and his crew of sailors.

These small owners were good sailors and at the same time traders have strong intuition in the choice of products for export and import. Their navigation, ~, lasted several years because they were obliged to travel very often around the world, moving from one continent to another, on behalf of foreign companies, materials of all sorts: their profits were then invested in property and possessions that no accident still belong to their descendants [5] . Some residents were seafarers and maritime employers: they are dedicated to conducting recreational boats, called Lord no coincidence, since the first owners of the boats had been touring some British Lord. Finally, the rest of the inhabitants was miller [6] or farmer, those activities carried not only for wheat bran and pine, but also to grind the olives in order to extract the oil and recover the kernels, then used as fuel for stoves and food ovens.

Also during the first Ottocento the agricultural cultivable land was used for olive, wine-growing, cutting wood and horticulture: the peasants who worked the land for ~, were not the owners, because funds belonged to the wealthy and owners of inns then existing. This situation, however, will remain static until the mid century, when the fortifications of the Old Republic are sold to individuals, to then be transformed into civilian homes: in those years, the British Consul Montague Yeats Brown (Fig. 5), came to Portofino with his boat Black Tulip, is so fascinated by the natural beauty of the site to the point of buying the Coast of the Kingdom of Sardinia fortress overlooking the Promontory, to transform it into his private residence (Fig.6). This is done in many ways the main tourist take-off of the village, because almost immediately, the place is frequented by a real colony of aliens, aristocratic families comprising British, American, Swedish, German and Austrian, who little by little sienna Portofino by setting a building villas and houses impressive, but with respect for nature and traditional values of the place. Among the names most important families who choose as their residence Portofino over time will also feature the English Lord Carnavon Aubrey Herbert [7] , Who in 1884 decided to buy some land on Mount of Portofino, they built Villa Altachiara then inherited by his son Auberon. The first two characters Victorian cos "as all those who had followed them, were used to accommodate people in their homes distinguished, kind of life that contributed" significantly to the knowledge Portofino to a European Elite. Although there ~ the village continues to remain the goal of a few, won by a unique and unspoilt nature of which are also mentioned the German barons Mumm [8] , Which establish their residence in 1912, buying another strong [9] located sull'istmo of Promontory. The presence of many foreign families inevitably creates close links with the locals, who assimilated into the habits, among other things, encouraging the development of the sense of business and labor: not by chance some trades while others are abandoned, including construction and related industries, are increasing thanks to the construction of villas and houses in the village, until then few and rudimentary. By the British and the Germans the locals also learn the art of refinement and understated represented conservation property, surrounded by stone walls and marked by widespread culture of the garden by the British through the introduction of new plants and flowers and the transformation of difficult mountain slopes in romantic avenues to walk. Many residents had found work with these families as gardeners, maids and porters.

At the end of the nineteenth century, so "as it did for other coastal centers, including Portofino ceases to be an isolated village reachable only by boat because between 1880 and 1890 is built the road that connects it to Santa Margherita Ligure, favoring cos "The influx of even more visitors from now can reach the place by taking advantage of the gig, and then the carriages pulled by horses with vetturini to make a panoramic tour, thus going to support the boatmen, who during the season Summer also providing the same service with the use of rowing boats and sailing.

In 1889 the famous French writer Guy de Maupassant Portofino ~ a landing aboard his boat Bel Ami: struck by the beauty of the village, in his travel diary La Vie Errante notes: "Un'insenatura hidden, which enters the sea, nearly traced, the dense fir trees, olive trees and chestnut trees. A small village, Portofino, is expanding as an arc of the moon around this quiet basin. I never felt a feeling perhaps match that I felt upon entering quell'insenatura green, and an equal sense of rest, contentment ... [10] ".

The first guidebooks devoted to the description of the village to appear late, but are still far dall'enfatizzarlo from a receptive and they are limited more to highlight that other monuments and streets. In 1895 is published tourist guide Santa Margherita Ligure and its surroundings, which in fact only read the stories to a visitor about the beautiful landscape of Portofino, or local handicrafts such as women who work the lace or the activities of fishermen. Another driving the same period, Portofino Kulm and its environs, Switzerland in the middle of the sea describes Portofino through the chronicles of a tourist villas reminiscent of the village and some monuments. In fact, a late nineteenth century tourists a very different figure from that today and therefore the leadership does not hardly ever entertainment and leisure: tourism nineteenth only a route through the memory, a kind of overview of tangible traces that history has left in place and consequently of the guides are limited to indicate the beautiful landscape, works of art, and the illustrious sons of the place described [11] .

The testimony about the number of hotels that are present in stem instead from stories of people who lived in Portofino, which point out that the late National existed that the restaurant also had some rooms that were rented to tourists so as fishermen put to a room of their house for short stays and rest [12] . Moreover only at the end dell'Ottocento receptive to the industry and services begins to expand with the construction of the first large hotels achieved using patrician villas abandoned by former owners and purchased by bourgeois classes: a sample consisting of the famous Hotel Splendido, the ancient home of Baron Baratta, acquired by Ruggero Valentini in 1901 to be used for luxury hotel.

During the same period the village had thirteen businesses including ten representatives from restaurants / bars, a tobacconist and a coffee; in the thirties, however, the exercises pass the fifty, of which twenty-six between hotels, restaurants and snack bar [13] .

During the Second World War the village is invaded by German soldiers and bombed. A war completed many British families leave the town, but after intensive work of reconstruction, during the fifties the village returns to the paradise of green and always able to attract new forms of tourism.

1.2. -- From postwar According to today.

Starting from the Second World War, the spread of the automobile, transcontinental flights and transoceanici tends to develop more tourism, encouraged by the increase in personal incomes and leisure, which by now also allow less affluent classes of travel , Determining what "the birth of mass tourism. From the fifties there is in Italy to a substantial increase in tourist arrivals from nations exits and winning the War, and favored currency in terms: the flows were established for the purpose pi from Americans, British, French and Swiss.

In those years Portofino remains quite indifferent to a tourism that is about to become mass, although the village always seems more popular with many hikers who come to visit during the day, trying to be able to spot some major character: the exclusivity of instead, it increases with the influx of stars of cinema, of celebrities and aristocratic people, what remains "a goal that only the wealthy can afford classes [14] (Fig. 7).

Starting from the Second War After the Ligurian coast and Portofino are also achieved more easily, thanks to 'opening of' the coastal highway to connect the capital with the Ligurian Riviera del Levante and La Spezia. However, if the Fifties to the Portofino had enjoyed almost exclusively to international fame in later years, thanks to Raffaele Socks and Salvator Gotta will also acquire national fame, as these two writers and journalists, through the pages of major newspapers such as Corriere della Sera, are beginning to exalt the enchanting beauty of the village. In particular Salvator Gotta often said in various interviews that "Portofino and its Gulf owe their fortune to journalism which he highlighted the scenic beauty, silence and austerity its small seafaring world, peace on its sea harvest, the grandeur of its upstream selvoso. [15] ".

There ~ Still, while throughout the Riviera extralberghiera the offer from the Sixties began to predominate over that hotel in Portofino housing rentals and second homes are quite marginal because only they could afford Milanesi the luxury of having, at least in the early years a second home in the village, where to spend their holidays during the summer, then for ~, an increase in rent and the cost for the purchase of apartments, small, due to the building block for environmental protection, have forced most of the guests to travel in the adjacent municipalities of Santa Margherita Ligure and Rapallo, and in other areas of the Riviera di Levante. Not even after a case because the municipality rejected the request to give life to rapallizzazione [16] , Rejecting the request for licenses for new buildings and although some owners are still able to build and modify some manufactured illegally, the municipality, residents and even local newspapers have shown tenacity to defend and respect the territory so as to make the village as one of the most envied places "green" of Liguria.

Tourism extralberghiero develops only in Portofino nautical tourism in that same period it is perfected with the birth of areas designed for custody and maintenance of vessels, so not only are more hotels to accommodate large characters, but also the port, where during the summer sail yachts, yachts, Riva speedboats and sailboats of great elegance and prestige.

In the eighties Portofino continues to play the role of location - becoming leader also attractive destination for tourism linked to the growing congressional recorded from Santa Margherita, which could influence the village especially in the catering and banquet in organizing and aperitifs and destination for tourism and green school, attracted by the beauty of nature park established in 1978, when, under Law No. 70, 1975 the Body "Monte" established by Law 1251 of 1935 was abolished and its functions transferred to the Region Liguria, which since 1977 had already promulgated the Law No Quadro 40 on protected areas, in order to initiate a policy of protection and enhancement of the area through the creation of parks and nature reserves.

The image of Portofino is more widespread and continuously through the mass media and through the pages of the Internet: there has ~ led the village to record a real tourist boom in the nineties but is intended to decrease with the new millennium. Although there ~ multinationals thanks to the increasing globalization, always take more money and the old field, where once were stowed in the gear or were active where local shops have been transformed into luxury shops for the sale of much prestige Griffes (Figg. 8-9). This functional transformation of the business has had repercussions on the territory evident, especially highlighted by the changing architecture of the village and its population decline: not by chance that the relief map made recently by the University of Genoa (Fig.10), cos " as studies by the University of Architecture in Rome, confirmed that, if both the original structure in rows of buildings in the historic center not changed at all, on the other primitive architecture characterized by shops and arcades, arches and pillars changed over the years because of new demands and fruitive offered by functional environments.

Through the Census data covering the period 1871-2001 ~ you can see that the people, after an initial drop between 1881 and 1901, it recorded a second from 1951 to today (Fig.11). Also analyzing Census data relating to the working population from 1961 to 2001 pu ~ noted that over the years to coincide with the emergence and development of the tourism industry people employed in primary industry dropped sharply while those engaged in commerce ( tertiary sector) have increased also in relation to the decrease of residents (table 1).

 

[1] In 1685 the Benedictine Jean monaco Mobillon makes ~ in Burgundy, Switzerland, Germany and Italy a sort of Grand Tour, an official in the same century by Saint Morice through the publication of its Guide to the Fid des Etrangers dans le voyage en France to indicate a journey of usually two or three years, was referring to a trip to Type substantially or cultural studies, religious, diplomatic, business involving ~ only to aristocratic families. The favorite destinations were European, particularly France, Germany and also Italy. The Grand Tour was coined in opposition to the Petit Tour, who travel related to a territory far more circumscribed. See G. ROCCA, Space Tourism and Sustainable Development, Genoa, ECIG 2000, p.19.

[2] www.riservaportofino.it

[3] D. BELLINI - E. RIZZI, tourist guide and naturalist Card Portofino, Lavagna, Editrice Zone 1997, p.10.

[4] www.uniroma.it.

[5] G. COAL, Chronicles of Portofino, Rapallo, Emiliani 2004, pp. 38 - 39 and 46 - 47.

[6] It is no coincidence that part of Paraggi located between Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino, was known then as Valley of Mills.

[7] The Earl of Carnavon became a character famous for having financed the excavations in 1922 that led to the discovery of the tomb of Tuthankamon.

[8] Being ambassador of William II in Japan, the Baron Freiherr Von Mumm, the guests ~ Kaiser in Portofino in 1914 aboard the yacht SMY Hohenzoller.

[9] Built in the days of the Republic Genovese, the castle of St. George was owned by Stephen Leech, who gave the Baron Von Mumm.

[10] M. Delpina, Mount Portofino's heritage for humanity, Vercelli, 2003, pp. 43-44.

[11] MC Cigolini - MR CROSS, "Tourism in the Ligurian coast, urban design and architecture from half of today", Genoa, ERGA Editions, 1997, pp. 75-76.

[12] G. COAL, Chronicles of Portofino, Rapallo, Emiliani 2004, pp. 103 - 104.

[13] G. COAL, ibid, p. 104.

[14] Since 1952 Portofino is seen populated by people like Edward Duke of Windsor, Sir Winston Churchill, Rex Harrison, Clark Gable, Tyrone Power, Frank Sinatra, Ingrid Bergman, Brig Bardot and many others. Many of them, such as Rex Harrison, buying villas while others are staying at the Splendido, the years that records Cinquanta a remarkable arrival of tourists and foreign personalities. Even Ava Gardner comes to Portofino to turn part of the film "La Contessa Scalza" with Humphrey Bogart, Rossano Brazzi and Lauren Bacall.

[15] M. Delpina, Mount Portofino's heritage for humanity, Vercelli 2003, p. 45.

[16] Term derived from rapalizzare that means reducing a city or location in environmental conditions deteriorate due to the excessive and uncontrolled domestic buildings, built for speculation without adequate works of urbanization. An example which underlie the proper name the Ligurian city of Rapallo.