Let me start off by saying that Portofino, Italy is dream-like.
It’s absolutely beautiful. A picturesque seaside town with restaurants dotted along the harbor, each one painted with hues of warm reds to bright yellows. Hundreds of brightly colored boats slowly bobbing in the water to a light breeze. The cobblestone streets are lightly filled with couples walking hand-in-hand, shopping the strip or enjoying coffee over light conversation.
It looks like a scene from the movies… But I don’t think I will be returning any time soon.
Let me start by pointing out that I am in college. Let me also point out I live in America and pay thousands of dollars to get an education. This further means that my travel budget is not where I would like it to be.
I’m not staying in hotels, eating fancy food, or buying souvenirs (even for myself). My choices are limited, but I’m okay with it. It means I get to roam cities in search of great food for amazing prices or experiencing bartering my way down for a leather purse.
In a simple statement, Portofino is NOT for a young traveler on a budget.
Once you’re in Portofino, there’s no turning back. I was spending the afternoon there with my roommate just to see the views and grab lunch before making our way to Pisa for our flight. Just getting here is a nightmare in itself; requiring a train and a fifteen minute bus ride with sixty other tourists squeezed in like sardines. On top of that, there are only about 10-15 places to choose from for lunch. All of which are sitting along the harbor… and extremely out of my budget.
We walked to every restaurant to see which one had the best prices – the answer is none of them. Each restaurant had main courses starting around 15 Euros all the way up to 70 and 80 Euros. WHAT?! I was getting extremely frustrated.
We trekked on and found a place that was offering some simple dishes for around 10 Euros. My roommate and I decided to give it a try; we would be here for another couple of hours anyways.
For 12 Euros, I ordered Spaghetti Ragu, or, Spaghetti with meat sauce. A dish that is, well, really hard to screw up in my opinion. It was the worst pasta I’ve ever had in my entire life. The spaghetti was overcooked, the sauce was non-existent, and the plate itself was about the size of my hand. On top of that, the waiter had the nerve to make me pay for my dish when I sent it back and told him that I didn’t like it. It was a nightmare.
It may be the one restaurant, but either way the food I had in Portofino was awful and extremely over-priced.
The reason I say that I probably wont return, is because it looks like a great town to vacation in when you’re in your 50’s or 60’s, with your spouse, and have a lot of extra money to spend. I’m sure there is great food in Portofino, but a backpacker or college student like myself definitely cannot afford it.
Besides this, as I stated before, the views were gorgeous. My other two roommates decided to hike the five cities of Cinque Terre, Italy. From my roommate’s stories and experiences I would highly recommend going there rather than Portofino. The views look better anyways!
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Though you will probably won’t, return you won’t forget your experience there. It looked like a beautiful city and don’t assume people in there 50s or 60s will be able to even get there. I am in my 50s and live on disability therefore I won;t even afford the luxury of being served overpriced bad food. your pics again were beautiful. After checking your map of Italy I noticed I had spelt the province of my Grandfather’s homeland wrong, It should be Abruzzo and not Abruzzi. I read all the extras that you had put in about the history of Italia/Italy.. And again the pictures you supplied were great. When my great grandparents met- they could not understand each other because they spoke 2 different dialects of Italian. They learned “perfect” Italian and that is the language their children grew up knowing how to speak. Italian without the dialects. Anyway, thank you once again for your travel story , may you remember the good and not so good parts of your journey. Count yourself lucky!
Oh no, I’m not assuming all older people can afford to travel here. I’m just saying that the majority of tourists there were older! Thanks for reading!
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Can you tell how long is the distance between Portofino and Cirque Terre? You said your roommate “hiked” to other towns. Is that mean you can easily walk around or do you need transportation? Thinking in visiting perhaps next year. Thanks
Sonia, I rented an economy Fiat from Genoa, drove down 2 hours to la Spezia, took a 15 minute train to the 5 villages, spent a day hiking them and eating gelato, drove an hour east to Montecatini, another 40 minutes to Florence; Siena is an hour south, San Gimignano is in between them. Lucca is just west of Montecatini- in 7 days with 2 little boys and my wife we did Tuscanny, part of the riviera and the cinque Terre. Apropos, rapallo next to Portofino isn’t as overpriced but still I get where Sydney is coming from.