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Portofino
The charming seaside city of Portofino is in the Liguria region of Italy.
Known as a small fishing area in the Italian Rivera, the area was founded by the Romans in ancient times under the name “Portus Delphini” or Port of the Dolphine, due to the schools of dolphins that swam in along the coast.
Today, the area’s small harbour has since been known to be a popular yachting and seaside resort destination along the Mediterranean as well as the Italian retreat for the continental travellers who maintained villas here. Its Hotel Splendido and Splendido de Mare for example housed the Duke and Duchess of Windsor during their honeymoon as well as served as the romantic backdrop to the Hollywood romance of movie actors Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Its famous underwater statue, Christ of the Abyss, was place in close to 20 meters deep within the bay area of Portofino in the early 1950’s. Guido Galleti’s bronze statue portrays the figure of Christ looking sky-wards with open arms as a sign of peace, meant to commemorate those who had dedicated and lost their lives to sea.
Alongside the tall, colored houses that are present every Portofino street. Carved unto the cliffs overlooking the Mediterrenean sea are the fishing villages of the Cinque Terre (Five Lands)--Corniglia, Manarola, Monterosso al Mare, Riomaggiore and Vernazza.
With landscapes of lemon and olive trees, figs and grape vines, it is no wonder that Portofino is home to unique gastonomy. The sea breeze would rustle up ones appetite for a typical meal eaten her, which would include a antipasto starter of farinata (a thin pie made with chick-pea flour cooked in a wood oven, similar to those used for pizza), and then on to pasta tagliatelle with pesto sauce (which was invented in the region), gattafin (pasta stuffed with beetroot, onion and parmesan) and of course, the freshest catch from the sea.
