Orange Wave - Tour

Inaccessible, protected and wild: we are now approaching Cala dell’Oro, the Cove of Gold. It is a natural beach inside Zone A, the fully protected core of the Portofino Marine Protected Area. It also has a troubled past, full of old stories about pirates and smugglers. The inlet is marked by caves and hidden cracks where, according to local legend, Saracen pirates once hid stolen goods and waited...

Just off the Abbey of San Fruttuoso, there is something many divers come here to see. On the seabed, about seventeen metres below the surface, stands the Christ of the Abyss. It is a fairly simple dive, but it should only be done with experienced and authorised guides working inside the Portofino Marine Protected Area. The bronze statue is about two and a half metres tall. Christ is shown with his...

Up ahead is the Abbey of San Fruttuoso di Capodimonte, a place of history and quiet devotion. Getting here is not easy. You can arrive by boat, as we are doing now, or on foot along the paths that cross the mountain behind it. As the abbey comes into view, you can see why it feels so secluded. It stands in a small inlet, protected by the woods of Mount Portofino. In summer, the pebble beach fills...

Look at those grey cliffs dropping straight into the sea and enclosing a small wild cove. This is Cala degli Inglesi, or English Cove. The rock walls, shaped by wind and waves, continue below the surface for hundreds of metres. Above them, the slope is covered with Mediterranean scrub, strawberry trees and maritime pines. Here the sea is a deep, dark blue. The place feels wild and untouched. And y...

Make your way to Portofino’s Piazzetta to listen to this audio. Mediterranean scrub and dry-stone walls are a common sight along the Ligurian coast, from the Cinque Terre to the area around Savona. But here in Portofino, they frame the Piazzetta and the small bay where the yachts are moored. Now raise your eyes to the headland behind the square. Up there, Portofino shows a different side: footpath...

Portofino’s bay forms a perfect crescent and brings us straight into the famous Piazzetta. It feels like an elegant amphitheatre by the water. The houses are tall and narrow, built close together to protect one another from the winter winds that enter the bay. Their façades are painted in the colours of the Ligurian Riviera: ochre, yellow, Pompeian red and pink. The Piazzetta is completely traffic...

We have reached the southern tip of the Portofino promontory. Up on the ridge, you can spot a small white square tower. That is the Portofino Lighthouse. It stands between two gulfs: the Gulf of Tigullio, which stretches from Sestri Levante to Portofino, and Golfo Paradiso, home to Camogli and the Abbey of San Fruttuoso. Many visitors walk up here from Portofino along the coastal paths, both for t...

We have reached Spiaggia dell’Olivetta, the last natural stop before entering Portofino. But this cove also holds a painful story from the Italian Resistance. In December 1944, Nazi troops based in this area carried out what is remembered as the Olivetta massacre. Twenty-one Genoese partisans, who were already prisoners, and one civilian were shot in reprisal, and their bodies were thrown into the...

It feels like a different world, doesn’t it? We are in one of the quietest corners of the Gulf of Tigullio, even though Portofino is only a short distance away. That small, fairy-tale cove is Baia Cannone — literally, Cannon Bay. Local tradition says the name comes from a cannon that once stood on the terrace above the water to defend the coast from pirate raids. It seems to have done its job. You...

The small bay in front of you is Paraggi, one of the very few places in this area with a sandy beach. With thick greenery all around and a pale seabed below, the water takes on a bright emerald colour. Paraggi is an exclusive place and has mostly escaped mass tourism. And that castle-like building beside the bay? That is Paraggi Castle, also known as Villa Bonomi Bolchini. For years, it was Silvio...

That colourful town, with houses painted ochre, yellow and pink, and a small bay dotted with boats, is Santa Margherita Ligure. From the seafront, lined with boutiques, shops and restaurants, you can still feel a lively, retro mood, almost like something from the carefree 1960s. From here, the façades look like pastel sketches. But up close, you can see the painted details and the typical Ligurian...

Before they became holiday resorts, the colourful villages along this coast were small fishing hamlets and defensive outposts of one of the most important Maritime Republics in Italian history: the Republic of Genoa. For many centuries, from 1099 to 1797, Genoa was a major power in the Mediterranean. Its port stood at the heart of important trade routes. The republic grew rich and powerful. But th...