Trekking Portofino, Genoa, Italy

Santa Margarita Bay, Genoa

The Italian summer circuit is now down on the Mediterranean. Fast forward... It's 8pm on Thursday evening, we've just finished a huge chicken salad covered in creamy mayo, with a box of far too salty olives that we pretty much regret buying and a bottle of bianco fizz. It's a warm night and doesn't look set too cool. 

The path is up those hills... 

The clothes we washed in the shower earlier are drying on the green plastic chairs outside our tent and colossal red lady bugs are crawling around our feet in the grass. By shuttle we reached our terraced campground around about 6pm after what felt like the longest and hottest of days traversing the Portofino peninsula. It's hard to believe that just this morning we were in Milan, it already seems so long ago, a bit like an old dream that we're remembering fragments of. We left early, and after a stop for breakfast, were then by 8am jumping on the intercity train. 

Early morning (pre hike) glow! 

Back in our campground, enclosed between several hills covered in lush green vegetation, we're now munching on flat sweet white peaches and are overhearing several Americans talk about their 'younger days', except their probably younger than us and are taking a gap year before they start uni. Our legs are tired, no actually they have stopped agreeing to function coherently and as we wait for the sun to set we're quietly checking our feet for blisters; total, Kara one old one, John two new ones. 

Sea view on the way to Portofino

Rewind; It was a fabulous day, the Portofino Coast was just exquisite and had the most gorgeous clear blue water. The kind of colour that you can catch right in the barrel of a wave, clear and turquoise. It was unreal, like something you might see in the next Avatar 2 at imax. Right from when we stepped off the train at the Santa Margarita train station it felt like an entirely different country, the air was hot and humid. From where the train station was located up on the hill we could see nothing but blue water. As we plodded downhill, the colourful buildings dotting the hillside between palms came into view. It was already heating up by then and our delicious Hawaiian coconut sunscreen was quickly melting into our skin, enhancing the beach feel. 

Remote houses on the remote hiking trails

Our motive was to hike from Santa Margarita to the jet-setting Portofino along the Azzure trail. Slightly longer than taking the flat, seaside road the trail 'should' have given us a stunning panoramic of the coast. 

View towards the end of the peninsula 

Instead, the 'low' grade trail was a thigh bursting, sweat inducing deep mountainous forest hike where we ultimately got lost. However optimistically and oddly it was still strangely enjoyable. We trekked past houses built hidden under trees only accessible by foot. The hillside was a network of roads, but as tiny as a one way mule track. About the time we realized we were waaaay off track we stopped for lunch under the trees by an old lone man sleeping (later it looked like he was just as lost as us, giving up his search for the path he stopped for a nap). Eventually through luck our GPS kicked back in, which further enhanced how far from the original trail we were but helped us find the right path down to Portofino. 

Its too hot for this ... 

Oh? A street light?

Coming down the steep descent into Portofino was such a relief. A group on their way up passed us and asked 'is it sun all the way?'. Yes dear friends, yes! The tintsy tiny little harbour was so secretly hidden in the folds and creases of the forested mountains that even walking down we could have missed it. The tiny crescent shaped town is snuggled around the calm greeny-blue harbour, and quietly sheltered from the coast. 

North west side of Portofino

Back towards Portofino

The water was so clear that you can see the schools of large fish swimming happily around the sleepy fishing boats which are moored up with mussel laden ropes. A playground for the rich and famous Portofino reminded us of wooden doll houses, lined up in row, intricately painted with uttermost detail. Beautiful but almost unreal.

Portofino from Castello Brown

Restaurants ready to serve the masses pasta

Boats moored in Portofino harbour

We ambled around the harbour and checking out the left side, then the right side of town, seeing tourists fulling up on creamy pasta and the lucky ones sun bathing onboard their super boats. 

We sat for a long time resting our legs willing them to prepare to move. We decided that it would be best to return by bus and took the faster route along the costal road to Santa Margarita. 



On the busy ride back we passed beaches lined with umbrellas and people swimming off the shore. 
After returning, we too ventured into the shallows absolutely wrapped at the warmth of the water but shocked that everyone was sitting on hot gravel. It could literally be compared to a carpark. 

Not exactly the beach we envisaged. 

Enjoying the warm waters!

That was new and not as much fun, although your legs didn't get covered in sand! When we finished our dip, and consequently a little less smelly, we walked up the hill and back to the train.

Tot siens

John and Kara