We are taking you to one of the prettiest places on the planet right here, Portofino.
And later in the program we will take you to Santa Margherita Ligure, another beautiful
town on the Italian Riviera.
Well, to get there were driving from Santa Margherita.
It's about 3 miles along the coastline, and you pass a little beach along the way and
a few isolated houses, but mostly it's this winding, curvy, cliff-hugging seaside road.
It's really scenic.
You can get there by city bus.
It's an inexpensive bus ride, under two euro, only takes about 15 minutes.
In our case were going by a private shuttle van because of our schedule, and this worked
out really nicely.
They took us right in the heart of town.
It's a little village, easy to walk around.
There are some shops, there are about half a dozen streets, and the view.
This is one of the great views of the world.
And we are going to show you how to get that view, especially at twilight, how nice.
We got here kind of late in the afternoon, and so right away first thing we want to walk
up the hill while the lighting is good.
Yes, it's a bit of an uphill climb, but not so bad, and it's worth it because you will
get some super views.
That’s the first glimpse you get, but keep going because it gets better.
You a little bit higher – only takes about 15 minutes at most to walk up here, or ten
if you are a good walker.
There's the view that you're going to get.
That is spectacular.
You can go a little further.
You don't have to go much further than that.
Maybe up to the church.
We’ re here in the off-season, it's November, so there's not very many other people around,
which makes it very convenient for us.
As you get to the top you'll see the small castle of St. George and next to it is the
church of St. George, which makes a great observation lookout for enjoying the view
down below, and you don't need to go beyond that, because here is where you get that perfect
view looking back at the little cove of Portofino.
And this is a great time of day to be here.
You get the natural lighting, you get the streetlights on, the shop lights are coming
on.
So the church lookout is a great spot to see the town from.
We'll get back down to the village in a moment and show you around.
There's a couple of shops, there is a couple of restaurants in this season.
Some students from Ukraine also visiting, taking their pictures.
The water was a little choppy this evening, it was high tide with water splashing up over
the dock there.
It’s a protected marina.
Portofino is world-famous as a home for yachts and the visiting jet-set, and the millionaires
and the billionaires.
But there are some affordable accommodations that we will show you in a moment, and there's
local residents, of course in Portofino, a very small population some ordinary neighborhood
shops.
But there are not very many accommodations here.
It’s more of a daytrip.
You might stay nearby at Santa Margherita, as we’ re doing, and there's a lot of hotels
in Santa Margherita.
We will show you signs for some hotels and bed and breakfasts.
You don't have to stay at the most fancy five-star deluxe hotel if you want to stay in Portofino.
But here you go, there are some B&Bs, three-star hotels, four-star hotels.
Hotel Splendido is probably the top choice, but they’ re closed from November through
March.
You get into the residential neighborhood just up the hill, and then it's time to go,
hopping on our bus.
We shared the bus ride with these young university students.
They are students in economics in Ukraine, in the capital city of Kiev.
And little did the students know on their holiday, that they were going to be walking
right back into a battle zone.
Fortunately, the revolution turned out well for the people.
The old president was kicked out.
Very friendly folks.
And in just about 15 minutes, the bus delivers you right back into Santa Margherita Ligure.
We discovered that Santa Margherita is not only a convenient place to stay because of
its numerous hotels, and restaurants, and shops, but it’s also a beautiful town.
It’s right along the shores of the Ligurian Sea.
There’s a big marina and there is a delightful old town with the pedestrian zone – lots
of locals out.
The train station is located right in the town itself and so if you're traveling light,
you could most likely just walk from the train station to your hotel.
Most of the hotels are within 1/2 a mile or at most 1 mile away, but in our case we got
suitcases and the small group and so were going to have taxis shuttle us right over
to the hotel, and we’re going to start touring immediately.
We decided to stay in Santa Margherita because it's just 3 miles away from Portofino and
just a little bit further away from Cinque Terre, which are the main attractions of this
coastline.
We have discovered that Santa Margherita is a classic town in its own right.
It's a bright little town full of light and color, which came into being originally with
the merging of two small adjacent villages, and now it’s formed in one beautiful spread
along the coastline.
It's ironic that Santa Margherita is not as famous as those other destinations, but it's
just as nice.
There is a charming waterfront park and promenade with benches and landscaping, beautiful palm
trees, statues and fountains, and old, orange-colored and brown buildings nestled right up against
the harbor with their sidewalk cafes and shopfronts.
In Santa Margherita Liguori were staying at the Lauren hotel.
It’ s four stars, and it's right on the waterfront, great location, just a hundred
meters away from the center of town where you got all the restaurants and the Piazza,
the pedestrian lanes in the passeggiata in the evening.
So consider Hotel Lauren when you're in Santa Margherita Ligure.
This park has a statue of Christopher Columbus, seemingly pointing out across the sea at the
New World.
Well it’s because Columbus is reputed to have been from the area, from Genoa, which
is about 25 miles north from here along the coastline.
And therefore he might have even spent some time right here in Santa Margherita at some
point during his career.
Like many, if not most Italian towns, there is a statue in honor of Garibaldi, the great
hero.
He led the battle for independence of Italy as a sovereign nation.
When you get away from the waterfront and step into the old town, just a block away,
you'll find some very charming sidewalks covered by arcades with big pillars and shopfronts.
The arcades are a great place to stroll and gather, protects you from the elements, and
then there are some open plazas right nearby.
It's the traditional evening passeggiata where all the local folks come out for a stroll.
It’s after work, it’s before dinner.
The families are gathering largest, there’s artists in the street, there’s lots of kids
out playing.
And sometimes you’ll get lucky and come across a very special family scene like this
– a bunch of young kids and one of the dads posing them.
That's a challenge, posing the a group photo.
This scene with the kids having fun and the local townspeople walking around is just an
example of how Santa Margherita Ligure is really a local place.
It's less of a touristic spot and more of an authentic Italian small-town experience.
It's a safe place, it’s a friendly place and yet it has a good variety of shops and
restaurants and hotels that can really take care of the visitor.
The town center is a pedestrian zone with several streets and piazzas just for people.
No cars allowed.
This is typical of what you're finding throughout Europe nowadays.
We’re getting hungry, and there's quite a few restaurant choices, and we got lucky
with an excellent place with a very friendly waiter.
Ristorante da Michele, my name is Cebus.
This is Santa Margherita and this is Ristorante da Michele.
Welcome.
It really was quite a spectacular experience.
Everybody in Hawaii, ciao.
[people speaking] We were having a relatively early dinner.
It was only about 7 o'clock.
But we had a long day and we were hungry and ready to eat and we’ re American tourists
after all, eating early.
Europeans generally eat about 8 PM or 9 PM.
Many restaurants don't even open until 8 PM.
Is the gnocchi, tagliatelle, handmade?
This is open, we have it all to ourselves because of that early hour.
Great service, incredible foods, fresh pasta, and great vegetables, and terrific wine to
go with it.
What a package.
And we enjoyed the regional specialties.
The muscles and calamari, some whitefish, crab, pesto, ok a la Bolognese.
That's the trophie, it’s the handrolled fresh pasta with a pesto sauce, and the pesto
is from the area because the hillsides cultivate a lot of basil.
[people speaking] thank you very much, Mr. Bush.
We’ll see you again, take care.
Bye-bye.
Followed by a little after dinner stroll to work off that amazing meal.
And the town is still jumping with lots of people out walking.
Another good reason for staying here is that there is a wide variety of hotels that you
can stay at in Santa Margherita, ranging from four-star deluxe right down to budget economy
in all sizes and categories, so it makes a real good home base.
Quite a few of the buildings are 300 and 400 years old, so you really do get quite a feeling
for a history here in Santa Margherita.
There's an outstanding Baroque church and many of the painted decorations on the buildings
hearken back to the Baroque, and even the rococo eras.
The area has quite a history.
It started out as several separate villages and then in 1812 they were joined together
by Napoleon, who named them after himself calling it Porto Napoleone.
However, three years later, with the fall of Napoleon, all that was undone and the city
was transferred to the kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia and renamed as Santa Margherita.
The hotel breakfast is just what you would hope to find in a very nice four-star hotel
in Italy.
A big spread there with your cold cuts, your meats and cheeses, there's rolls and fruits
of course, there’s yogurts, and coffee.
[Coffee machine noise] You lift it right out, fresh brewed coffee,
cappuccino.
It’s There's different kinds of beverages available.
And it's a very nice setting.
We have tables with a view looking out at the waterfront just right across the street,
just ideal.
You been watching our visit to Santa Margherita Ligure which is part of our tour, visiting
Cinque Terre and Portofino, nearby areas.
And we have many more episodes of video showing you those wonderful places: the five villages
of Cinque Terre, incredible, and Portofino, one of the world's most famous jet-set destinations.
Well, this morning we’ re heading out that away for our visit to Cinque Terre.
It's about an hour and 20 minute train ride from Santa Margherita.
And the weather does not look too promising.
The forecast is for scattered showers throughout the day.
Right now there is just a little mist in the air, but we will see how the day develops.
We’re going anyway, and rain or shine, Cinque Terre is a beautiful place to visit.
Well, we’re taking a walk from the hotel along the waterfront promenade in Santa Margherita.
Actually were heading for the train station.
We’re going to be riding down to Cinque Terre for today.
But that's a different movie.
For this film were just showing you Santa Margherita.
Look at our other movies for our adventures in Cinque Terre and Portofino the nearby attractions
here, close to Santa Margherita.
And check it out, and we will show you much more of the area.
We’re walking over to the train station which is only about 10 to 20 minutes away
from any hotel in town.
So convenient, Santa Margherita Ligure station connects internationally all over Europe.
It's a major train station, and it also has some of the local trains that connect directly
down to Cinque Terre.
So it really is great connection spot.
So you wait around for the train, hang out, and sure enough, it comes.
You get there about five minutes ahead of time, that’s all you need to do.
They are never early, sometimes they’re a little late.
So, the train arrives, you get on.
In the off-season, not crowded at all.
It's mostly second-class cars on these local train, so you don't need a first-class ticket.
The conductor comes around, punches your ticket out, and you get some scenery out the windows
and soon enough you have arrived at your next destination, so stay tuned and travel with
us throughout Cinque Terre.
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