Portofino

From Santa Margherita, it only takes about 20 min to bring us to our 1st destination, Portofino.

Even from far, I was impressed by the beauty of Portofino....

Our boat was approaching the harbor slowly...

I really think that Italian are very good in arts. From castles to churches to village houses, they never failed to impress me.

Portofino is known as the resort of the rich and famous, but there is much more to see here than just the people. This place is a picturesque, half-moon shaped seaside village with pastel houses lining the shore of the harbor.

The beautiful harbor.

This place is so picturesque that every photos I had taken look like a picture.

The boat had stopped here and so we get off from here too.

Along this street is shops, restaurants, cafes and luxury hotels.

A very friendly tourist had offer himself to take a family photo for us.

He even care enough to take another shot for back up. Both also very good. Thank to him.

The sea water is crystalline green that wanted to dive in for a swim (no way, just kidding).

Some luxurious yachts were parked at the harbor.

Who's Anastasca II?

When I strike mark-6 later, I will consider buying a yacht like this to pamper myself, my family & my friends.

In order to avoid the crowds, we didn't go to the town center straight away like most of the tourists did. Instead, we walked to the opposite direction to explore this place first.

We looked up and saw a castle sit atop the hill, so we decided to walk up to take a quick look of it.

The view we get to see when we almost reach the top of the hill, breathe-taking-heavenly beautiful.

After 15 minutes, we reached the castle that sits atop the hill overlooking the village. The castle is vacant now a days.

The entrance to the castle.

First, we need to pass through a garden.

The garden outside is more like a fruit garden, not many flowers though.

Some of the trees inside the garden.

There is nothing too special about the castle and the garden, except this is a good place to overlook the village & its harbor below.

We took a short break at the top, then started to walk down the hill....

10 minutes later, we were back to the sea level again.

A local fisherman was painting his boat.

The time was 11 am, a bit late for breakfast & a bit early for lunch. And brunch doesn't seem popular here.

We took a pee break in a public toilet, at seafront. It's a cool one.

The crowds have gone when we returned here. So, it's a good time to stroll around at our own pace then.

We bypassed all those seemingly expensive restaurants and walked into the town.

Walking towards the town.

As usual, the main street is lined up with shops, restaurants, cafes. Just that, this place seems to have more galleries than the other towns we have visited.

Also, this town is very classic.

A painter was doing his arts outside a gallery. Vincent was very interested in it, so we stood behind him and watched him brushing for a while.

Then we entered his gallery at a basement to take a look. My my, his gallery is quite a big one, with lots of beautiful painting (mostly oil) displayed in there. We had spent quite a long time to admire his collection. If it's not because the price is too expensive, we have at least bought one of it.

Too bad photography is strictly prohibited, which is understandable.

We left the gallery and continued the walk to the other part of the town. The glaring hot sun had pushed us to want to walk in the shade.

A restaurant with a big ankle outside its front door.

The weather was really too hot, so we took a short water-break at here.

William and his new-born dino, from the egg he had bought from Chamonix town. He carried it everywhere he go since then.

Although his thinking is quite mature at times, he is still a 7-year-old kid after all.

Sons and I.

Vincent is getting more mature too, more aware of his surrounding, which is a good sign.

Husband & I, we have spent time together for 20 years by now. How time does fly.

We passed by another gallery that had one of its painting displayed on the street. Awesome.

Eden Ristorante Hotel, hidden in the side street. I took a peep, and I think it's not cheap.

To our surprise, Vincent had requested we took him to visit the gallery which we had spent a long time just now. So, we made a detour and back to that gallery.

When the woman saw us agin, she thought we were going to buy one of the painting. We told her honestly that our son was very interested in painting, and he would like to take another look of it. She was happy to hear that though she knew we were not here to buy any of them.

We had spent another 15 min in the gallery. Just before we left, I couldn't help to take a picture of a painting that was put along the stair case. We had asked the woman to quote us for a painting which is about this size just now, it cost more than HK$ 33K ! (air freight charges is included).

I have forgotten what's the name of the painter, but judging from the quotation, we think he should be quite well known in the region.

The boat still hasn't arrived, so we have some more time to explore this town.

From our experience...the more we look into a thing, the higher chances we would buy it. Well, it's true again. we had bought some souvenirs from this shop.

While waiting for our turn to get on board the boat, I took some last shots of this beautiful place.

Apparently, this scene is the most frequently painted by the painters in Portofino.

They probably need to take quite a long time to get it painted, but it just take less than a second for a camera to capture it. Both equally beautiful in their own sense, but the price difference is huge.

So, I think only the filthy rich people will buy the painting.