According to a French historian, the first sign of church foundation at Portofino goes back to 160 d. c. It was built near the Olivetta hill on the Peninsula: after centuries, it was written in some works that, the population developed continuously reaching more than three thousand inhabitants. A new church was, therefore, necessary to hold all these parishioners and, in 986 the first foundations were put down which are those of the present parish church called “San Martino vescovo” (Saint Martin bishop): the natives of Portofino were skillful sailors, participating with the Genoese in the East Crusades, and testifying their devotion to San Giorgio before having a temple where to put the Saint’s relics.

Like the boatmen, who had met up with success dedicated to the marine traffic of passengers, a rosy horizon was foreseen, for there were other port people who felt that the pleasure boat business was to be divided between them, bringing a large economic profit to Portofino. The axe teachers and the “calafati” (specialized workers in waterproofing a ship) that work in the dockyard, dedicated themselves to repairing and building pleasure boats, much looked for in seamanship: There was a transformation, and a part of the activity went towards craftmanship. The wood teachers, besides repairing, started to build small boats, launches, and “gozzi” (rowing boats): after the rowing boats, motor boats were built.

Lara enjoys the sunrise in Portofino

In previous centuries, Portofino’s public spaces have been mentioned in various literary works. From the 1800s onwards, the village boasted numerous establishments, especially when considering its diminutive size and the influx of ships at its prominent port. This port wasn’t just a hub for trade but a stopping point for notable figures like popes, emperors, politicians, and soldiers. They would often stay until favorable weather returned, boosting the demand for accommodations and food beyond the local population’s capacity.

The village of Portofino in the 1920s

At the end of the XIX century, Portofino ceased to be isolated from the continent, where roads didn’t exist and you could only arrive by sea, or along the mountain footpaths. The motor road that connected the village of Santa Margherita was built in the eighties-nineties: which brought to Portofino a big economic transformation that, together with the touristic knowledge already acquired, permitted to establishment of a new category of workers. Transport services were organized in a short period of time, connecting the train service with other inherent activities giving well-being to the population.

Timeless Craft: A Portofino woman weaving stories through lace

Another activity that in time has become almost an economy is the work of pillow lace: pillow lace is an embroidery achieved by a design traced by pins on cardboard. It is carried out by the embroiderers interlacing the thread with wooden bobbins, called in Genoese dialect “caige“: In the beginning the grandmothers, mothers, and daughters, to economically help the family budget, and make up the balance, sold their asked for laces. In their free time, early in the morning they worked on their pillows, even the fishermen, rising to go fishing, could hear the rustle of the women’s wooden bobbins.

Marine dances in Portofino’s azure

The positionof Portofino has made fishing one of the most antique professions in the world. Before 1700, this category of people dedicated themselves to fishing coral. With tiny boats, called “leudi”, they went west to the island of Gallinara and to the deep sea of Provenza, their next-door neighbors, so to speak, from Rapallo, and San Giacomo of Corte took their coralline boats and went towards the Sardinia west coasts. The story says that the natives of Portofinohad a secret, about (the different spots on the nautical chart) called “poste”, that is the “armie” (nautical points), a secret that was handed down from father to son, and from the old sea captains of `700: these secrets were robbed by the Portofino sailors who had gone fishing coral with the Catalan searchers already in ‘600.

The Saint George Bonfire every April 23rd

For centuries the small church of Saint George in Portofino has stood on the isthmus in domination of two halves, two human destinies: that of the open sea and that of the sea enclosed in the small port of Portofino. This church conserves a ritual that is probably unique in the world. Before leaving on long sea voyages, the sailors of Portofino wish to have the benediction of Saint George and the church bells peal out, calling the faithful to climb up the steep way to the church square to assist the sacred rite.

La lavorazione del pizzo a Portofino

This category in Portofino had a long period of prosperity, at the beginning of the second half of the 19th century dragged along at alternate stages, because of war events. There was a new economy as time went by, which gave rise to a change in economic activities that gave well-being to the Village. After the annexation of the Genoa Republic to the Sardinia Kingdom, a remarkable number of foreign families who represented their Countries at Genoa, discovered Portofino and, one after another, they established an international residential colony in Portofino: with much attention, they jealously preserved their property handing it down from one to another for about a century.

The population of the Village of Portofino was also made up of very old workers, whom lived with their very numerous families in the country of the Mount; they were very toilsome people, who lived to survive. The most part, at least 90% weren’t owners of land and they lived in houses with terrible hygenic conditions, not everyone had a bathroom in their home, and many lived in the stables with the animals and chickens, being situated near the houses. These families that took care of the ground product had to give to the owners one third of the harvest (excluding the orchard), that consisted in picking olives, the primary income: there was also the vine cultivation and the cutting of wood, the trunk went to the owner and the twigs to the peasants (this was done to control that healthy trees weren’t cut and no trade was done); then there were other fruit and vegetable products and some peasants who possessed “pieces of land cut in a horizontal way” (agricultural terraces) wide enough to reap wheat.

Michele Cascella arrived in Portofino in the 1930’s, but he had already begun to love the hamlet even before seeing it thanks to the stories of Salvator Gotta. He was convinced immediately that it was the ideal place for a painter who valued above all, contact with nature, the open air, the sky, and the countryside. He therefore decided to buy a little two level house in the famous Portofino Piazzetta. It had a small terrace where the eye could scan the range from the peninsula to the mountain. Later he also rented a little house beneath the Brown castle in the middle of the olive groves which became his open air studio, the house of Faffy as he loved to call it. From those cliffs he painted the little piazza, surrounded by the olive groves which reminded him of Abruzzo.

A part of the population of Portofino worked as millers along the torrents of the “springwaters”, that gets it’s name “flowing waters” because, nearly at the top of the Mount at 400 metres above sea level, exist perennial water sources which gush out between two types of stone: on one side the rocks of Portofino called “pudinga“, on the other side the stone called “dell’antola” originating from Mount Antola. A good quantity of water flows out of these springs, at least 1300 cubic metres daily, even when the drought period starts, it lessens, but it is always enough for the function of the water-mills. Like that, a long time ago, buildings were built with adjoining houses so that the millers could work serenely: work was guaranteed for the families that, in time, became 35; other people were involved carrying the corn, especially the inhabitants of the port during the summertime and the drought period when, from the two Riviere, they reached Portofino by boat to grind their products.

With the coming of the new State of Sardinia the Ligurian Navy, that had for centuries taught the world the craft and art of sailing, underwent a massive awakening that in a short period won back the marine economy in a talented way. In Portofino existed families who had alot of familiarity with the sea, making a real fleet, like we read in books of sea stories about the Ligurian ships. These sailing-ships were crewed, by the captain to the ship-boy, by people exclusively from Portofino, moreover it is certain that other captains and sailors were commanding the ships of the ligurian shipowners: these men were not only good navigators, but also good traders, sensing which products were to be exported, and which to be imported. The shipowners of Portofino, who were also captains of their sailing boats, worked very well with international hiring to the point that their sailing lasted for years, as long as they travelled the world transporting for foreign firms, different types of goods from one continent to another and gaining remarkable earnings that they invested in real estate and possessions that even today belong to the families of their descendants.

At the end of seventeenth century, Europe was in quite a turmoil due to the war between different countries, and also the Ligurian Republic was made an object of conquest. From that moment on for 30 years, it was tormented by invaders, from spanish to english, from austrians to french and, even, by Pisa and Tuscany dukes. This Republic was object to attacks, even though protected by one or another, it was always occupied and robbed by foreign troupes. Being at the centre of the coast with a safe natural port close at hand, it was continuously occupied by invaders and considered very useful for repairing ships; furthermore at Portofino munition and, provisions were deposited and the troupes that arrived from the mounts settled there. During many repairs, the Ligurian Magistrate of the Fathers of the Communes made frequent visits and made different suggestions for the defence of the Village.

The Vintage Allure of Portofino: A Glimpse into the 1960s Italian Riviera

Portofino’s Dolphin Legacy: A Name Steeped in Marine Lore
Nestled along the Italian Riviera, Portofino’s name whispers tales of the sea. Legend holds that ‘Portus Delphini’ was inspired by the joyful dolphins frolicking in its harbor, a sight that enchanted sailors of yore. Others muse that the peninsula’s silhouette against the Ligurian Sea mirrors a dolphin’s graceful arc, while some believe the dense pine trees (‘pini’) once dotting the promontory gave rise to the village’s moniker.

Through each retelling, the essence of Portofino, Italy, remains—a sanctuary where nature’s beauty and history blend seamlessly.

Standing out from the wall of St. George’s on the side leading to the churchyard entrance are some plaques, set there by the association, «Friends of Portofino», to render homage to those persons who either spiritually or materially helped Portofino :

• MONS. SALVATORE MAGNASCO
  Portofinese (1806 – 1875) Archbishop of Genoa – Noble spirit dear to God – pray for us.
• GUGLIELMO MARCONI
  From onboard the Elettra, c the ship of miracles x. anchored in the bay of Portofino March 26th 1930, transmitted the short wave signals that turned on the lights at the Sidney World Fair in Australia.

Rex Harrison at his villa in Portofino in 1964

The great American actor Rex Harrison famous for his brilliant interpretation in the film “My Fair Lady“, had a villa built above the Belmond Hotel that cost him $50,000 in the first years after the war. Previously, in the same spot, there was a bunker in which the Germans had mounted a battery of cannon. Harrison went to live there with his wife Lili Palmer, an actress of German origin.

Under the arches of the porticoes in Portofino and at many of the street doors the workers-from little girls of six to wrinkled dames of seventy- sit in front of the three-legged stands which support the pillows on which their work is produced, and on all sides you hear the click of their wooden bobbins. To an uninitiated onlooker, the dexterity of the more accomplished workers seems magical: he marvels at the rapidity with which the bobbins fly from side to side of the complicated pattern, at the unerring exactitude with which just the right ones are selected, and wonders that the innumerable threads never become entangled amidst such a forest of pins. During the seasonfor visitors, the streets are hung with lace; stalls, bearing every article of feminine adornment that can be made on a tombola, are erected on the piazza and at all the points where prospective buyers are likely to pass; so that how to get by without stopping to admire and purchase becomes a most difficult problem.

From the foundation of the first church of San Fruttuoso di Capodimonte to the apogee of the Abbey. When one speaks of San Fruttuoso with someone who knows this splendid locality on the promontory of Portofino, few are aware that the complete name of the nuclear abbey of this little village is San Fruttuoso di Capodimonte. Capodimonte explains the name; San Fruttuoso explains the legend which we will briefly relate.

Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure until the formation of the Kingdom of Italy

From here on the history of Santa Margherita Ligure(see photo below)and Portofinorevolves around the story of the families and their relationship with the parishes. There were always animosities and parochialism was never stronger than in this part of Liguria. Between Portofino and Nozarego, Santa Margherita Ligure, San Giacomo and San Siro, and Rapallo there was tremendous competition with regard to the treasures that their respective churches possessed and the magnificence of the processions that were sponsored: in Santa Margherita the paintings of Bernardo Castello and the De Ferraris, in Nozarego the paintings of Cambiaso and the Crucifix of Maragliano, in San Giacomo the frescoes of Nicolò Barabino. etc.

The house of Gea was not certainly the richest, nor the host elegant in the village, but it was undoubtedly the most fanciful and famous of the place. It was not in the centre of the inhabited area, but it was placed in a little valley close to the mountain and it was celebrated everywhere for its prodigiuous characteristic: at every season it changed it’s colour, naturally, without anybody’s intervention with brushes and paints. In Spring it adorned itself with pink and soft green shades, in Summer it took up the tonalities of golden yellow, in Autumn it was transformed for warm variation of brown ochre, while in Winter it lighted up with white touches. Experts had come from all the world to carry out researches into the causes of those colourings, but they had tried to explain the mysterious phenomenon, linking it up vaguely with the influence of the sun.