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Portofino: picture-postcard-perfect playground in the Italian Riviera.

Article Excerpt
I first visited Portofino, a quaint fishing village turned posh resort in Italy's Ligurian Coast, four years ago aboard Windstar Cruises' Wind Surf. And--well, what can I say?--it was love at first sight. I felt like Guy de Monpassant, who called this small port on a calm bay surrounded by verdant hills and a nature preserve, "a green dream" affording "an unequalled sense of relaxation and fulfillment."

Everywhere I turned, it was as if I had been handed one of those street-vendor-sold packets of postcards that drop down like an accordion and reveal one gorgeous view after another. It was a pleasure just to look. "Click!" would go my mental shutter, snapping pictures for the "album" of special places ! keep in my brain.

That first visit, I indulged in the Italian far niente (do nothing), content to sit outdoors in the Chuflay Bar, right on the Piazzetta (small square), the beating heart of Portofino. I sipped something tall and cool while drinking in the even more refreshing scenery of the village's crescent-moon-shaped row of narrow houses. The buildings are painted in an eye-pleasing palette of ochre, beige, and orange, with the green winged shutters typical of the Italian Riviera.

Built ever so close to each other, the houses hug a splendid harbor filled with yachts and colorful fishing boats--some of the latter pulled up aground by fishermen onto...