BY GIANSANDRO CANTORI
Photo and video by Massimo Dallaglio
I found my love in Portofino, a celebrated international success of the 60s, sealed with its notes many of the love-stories born, bred, and lived in the hot summers of those roaring years which were the 60s, making Portofino a magical and legendary place in the memory of millions of people around the world and certainly the most iconic and romantic Genius loci that has ever existed.
We at Bespoke Portofino could not fall short in celebrating its legend, starting from the morning with its shining sun, until the magical sunset over the port, a postcard view with the most famous Piazzetta in the world as its backdrop. We have selected two young models for our story, but we could have also chosen a more aged couple and the result would not have changed, the leitmotiv is good for any age and any love.
Today, however, Portofino is no longer the same as it was in the 60s and 70s, or in the following twenty years.
The souvenir shops, the food shops, the designer clothes that you could only find there, the restaurants and cafés in the square, in the alleys and in the carruggio have changed. You could unremorsefully buy focaccia and a cup of paciugo ice cream, while hearing the Ligurian dialect interspersed with the amiable Milanese of some businessman on a spiritual retreat with the beautiful starlet of the day, and the streets were filled with well-known faces from the movies and the golden youth who lived in the Villas on the hill.
There also came day-tourists who mingled until evening to see if the boat with black sails was at anchor, lawyer Agneta’s, Raul’s sail, or the Mysong of Pigi Loro Piana, or to take a souvenir photo with an American star. But those were the years of La Dolce Vita and of idleness. Holidays were sacred. Now everything has changed, even if many of the signs have remained, they have simply changed hands. Half of the square, in terms of commercial presence, speaks French, the other half Italian or are in disguise with assets of international provenance.
That is because today being in Portofino Mare Piazzetta means putting a flag with the logo on the toponymy of a legend. There we have the same windows of the international brands of clothing, accessories, jewels, hotels as those present in Faubourg st Honoré, Bond street, Montenapoleone, Capri, San Tropez, Porto Cervo. It is the thin red silk thread that the world of luxury unrolls in the big business cities as well as in vacation spots, where lately holidays and smart-working meet.
The pandemic has changed working ways and habits, the holiday has exploded with its seasonal rituals, all sold out after a long period of shut-downs.
The Americans are back, hungry for Italian style, the most desirable and celebrated international way of living in the world. I saw groups of Americans arriving in the square, middle-aged women and men. I asked some of them where they came from: Cincinnati, Chicago, Arizona. Yet they know everything about the Italian dream even if they pronounce the names of the restaurants and local dishes in a funny way. I am Italian and I feel proud of this love and inspiration for our way of living. But the real rich are there too, but where?
The truly rich exist and they are on large yachts anchored in the bay. Portofino is an essential stop on nautical tours in the Mediterranean. There may be less wealthy people, but who can rent large yachts for the day for short cruises.
Where do celebrities and wealthy Americans, actors, musicians stay? In large hotels such as Splendido, part of the Belmond chain now owned by the largest international luxury brand LVMH.
One thing has not changed, aside from the super-equipped fishing goiters today, the Riva motorboats, the most beautiful boats in the world: mahogany, teak… it remains an iconic marine object, the most desired of boats for the summer which holds unchanged fame and demand.
As in the novel “Il Gattopardo” by Tomasi di Lampedusa, in Portofino “everything changes for nothing to change”. And so the protagonists of our story walk holding hands, eating, drinking, and dancing through the narrow streets of Portofino. I like to think of them in a story with a soundtrack, as Queen sing: “A night at the Opera / a day at the races”… and – why not? – a day in Portofino. A horizon and a story among boats and piers, a café, a restaurant to say: “I still love you”.
I like to see the village, il Monte, San Fruttuoso, from above, like the view in one of those photos which made Aroon Slim the greatest of luxury photographers: a unique glimpse of a dreamy swimming pool adorned with colored sun umbrellas, a fresh refuge for few happy people.
The point of view from the top of the Hotel Splendido is just as accurate as the black and white photos on the walls portraying all the famous people of all times who have stayed here, a testimony of continuity in an international community of a unique clientele, the bar always open for a coffee or a gin tonic, with superior quality service, breakfast with a view of the sky and the sea. From here, Portofino is a little further away, almost inaccessible, but the smell of the Mediterranean scrub, the chirping of crickets and cicadas mark the passing of time like a clock and tell us what was and what will be. The heat is just right, not like in the city: here the kisses given and received are never forgotten.
I found my love in Portofino… I will never forget those kisses… My journey in Portofino is no longer sad… I found my love in Portofino… Quei baci più non scorderò / Non è più triste il mio cammino / A Portofino I found my love.
