Portofino

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, movie stars, and other wealthy people live(d) on the hills that surround Portofino on three sides like a Roman theater. The yacht harbor is the stage; the beautiful yachts are the star performers; fishing boats play supporting roles; the row boats are the extras.

Portofino has no streets, only a parking lot, a bus stop, and places to walk. When I asked how long we could park in Portofino, the attendant replied, in English, “24 hours.” I said, “Fine we’ll just spend the night.” And he said, “No problem.” By this time I should have determined this is the standard Italian answer to most any question involving the movement of a vehicle.

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The photo below shows our RV (the first one) parked for the day. Everyone else left by evening, but we spent the night right here, in our RV, Maybe that's a first for this picturesque seaside town, a sleepy little fishing village, that became a tourist Mecca.

Most likely a night in an RV in Portofino is somewhat unique. The next morning, a policeman with a big smile and a wig-wag of his finger let us know sleeping in our RV was a no-no, and we shouldn’t do it again.

A few years later we drove the same narrow road to Portofino in a different RV, confident the policeman would not remember us and certain we could again spend the night in this special little village. Then we found they had built an apartment building and a parking garage right where we had spent the night the last time. Now there was no place for us to park the RV for even a few minutes, let alone spend the night! We back-tracked a few miles, found a place to park, then rode a small city bus to Portofino for a few hours of walking, looking, and enjoying this enchanting tourist attraction.