Portofino

The city of Ianus keeps teaching me about movement and change. Ever since my first visit (of many) to Genova, I wanted to explore the coast around it, the riviera ligure. This weekend, after seeing that the gulf of Tigullio is only about 30km away, and that spring weather had arrived with gusto, I did what any sensible man would: got myself a bicycle and departed the very next day.

The trip amounted to about 40km, over two days:

• 25km: Genova – Recco
• 10km: Rapallo – Portofino
• 5km: Portofino – Santa Margherita Ligure

(I arrived in Recco with no time, and neither my legs nor the brakes of the bicycle were in condition, to face the trip across Monte Pollone to Rapallo as I had originally planed, so I ended up making those final 10km by train)

Portofino is a tiny comune, with around 350 inhabitants. It is a natural harbor, its promontory providing protection from both sea and wind and creating a calm pool of azure water, long used by fishermen before it became a big touristic attraction, and a prominent position in the gulf for both its lighthouse and castle.

The origin of its name is found in Pliny the Elder (the one who bravely died during the eruption of Vesuvius, again): Portus Delphíní, from the Latin word which is the root of “dolphin” in English. Δελφίς in turn comes from the word for “womb”, δελφύς (since it is an aquatic mammal). The resemblance to the name of the famous temple — whose priestess prophesied the wisdom of Socrates, the fate of Oedipus, etc. — is not accidental: it was an ancient place of veneration of the Earth goddess Gaia, and legend says Apollo turned into a dolphin to carry its priests from the island of Crete, who then worshipped him as Απόλλων Δελφίνιος.

Ac ne forte roges quo me duce, quo lare tuter:
nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri,
quo me cumque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes.

And if you may ask who guides me, what place shelters me:
I do not submit to swearing by anyone's precepts,
and whither the tempest carries me off, I am borne a stranger.