It was here that Richard Burton proposed to Elizabeth Taylor, and where Sophia Loren, Ernest Hemingway and Frank Sinatra came to escape the crowds.
A jewel of the Italian riviera, Portofino radiates a timeless beauty. In this former fishing harbour, pastel buildings meet the clear Ligurian sea, framed by lush green hills. The port town, with an off-season population of just 355, has come to epitomise Mediterranean glamour, becoming a sanctum for the rich and famous., and where Sophia Loren, Ernest Hemingway and Frank Sinatra came to escape the crowds.
Today, Rolex, Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana shopfronts line the narrow cobbled lanes, alongside expensive restaurants, pretty cafes and high-end bars where a cognac can cost up to £350 Several mornings a week, the cruise-ship hordes descend on the town — just as other tourists are alighting from packed ferries from the neighbouring coastal towns of Rapallo and Santa Margherita.
An American couple, regulars for two decades at the Splendido Mare Hotel, where rooms can cost £3,000 a night, tell me they are confined to the premises, unable to leave because of the volume of tourists. Cruise ships with up to 3,000 passengers are descending on the tiny, picturesque town of Portofino where they crowd the small pathways and don't spend any money in the shops
By now, the cobbles are barely visible under the sandals and trainers of 'hit and run' tourists, as the locals call them. The truth is that the municipality also has an interest in keeping up tourist numbers — it benefits from a £5 tax for every visiting cruise passenger. You might expect local shops to welcome so many potential customers. But many of the high-end stores close their doors to the crowds and implement strict one-in, one-out policies
An assistant in the women's store 100%Capri, where crisp white linen outfits retail from £860, tells me: 'It's nice that people want to come here. But some of the cruise-ship passengers have no decorum. They will just sit outside the shop on the floor and start having picnics. 'Often the bigger the ship, the less the passengers spend. We rely on the yachts for most of our business,' she says.
Rather than face the embarrassment of leaving, they grudgingly ordered coffees before moving to a restaurant within their budget. 'We didn't realise it had Michelin-starred chefs so we had a cappuccino — and even that was expensive,' they complained. One jeweller told me: 'It does get pretty busy. We want people to enjoy Portofino but some of the cruise passengers have no respect'
Others concede that while they are happy to shop and try out the local restaurants, they have been put off by the crowds. Then there is the logistical pressure of so many tender boats, with about ten arriving and leaving each hour. Gabrielle, who has worked in the local boat-hire business since he was a child, says the marina is becoming overcrowded.