You recognize Portofino bay immediately: in addition to being one of the most famous places in the world it is full of mega yachts! It is true that entering this marina is a privilege, but it remains a true marina, open to transit of nautical yachters. Certainly it is not easy to find a place, it is rather small and always very crowded, but you just have to book well in advance (info@marinadiportofino.com).

The specifications of the harbour are 4 metres 30 draught and all useful services for yachting (water and light columns, Wi-Fi, etc.), even if actually no very lucky person stays at Portofino long; it is a place of passage where people stay at most 3 or 4 days – after all everyone has the right to come here! But how much does it cost to stay at Portofino? It depends on the size of the boat: the smallest ones up to 10 metres spend €56 + VAT a night, and it goes up to €2,500 for boats above 55 metres. An “average” boat, let’s say around 14 metres, spends €112 + VAT a night. Entering Portofino requires a lot of precautions, as there are a lot of steamboats bringing tourists here from Genoa, La Spezia and Tigullio; the channel for communicating is 12. It may always be crowded, but it is marvellous, the scenery that we know well from great films, great marriages...

The Tonnarella

In the Portofino marine protected area, the manager Giorgio Fanciulli explains to Patrizio what "sea-sweeping boats" are. They are an initiative created together with the province of Genoa and ten councils in the area, from Recco to Moneglia. They are sweeper boats that go around cleaning, showing that “sweeping the sea” is possible, and is not a crazy idea!

In this marine area there is also what is probably the last tuna station, this being an old fishing tradition that dates from the end of the seventeenth century and is vanishing, but has never been abandoned by the fishermen of Camogli. It is a small tuna station, made up of two boats: a main one (Poltrona) and a support one (Asina). Its presence doesn’t have negative impacts on the marine area because it only takes fish passing through and not resident fish, and from a tourist point of view it has become a source of interest, inserted in tourist itineraries and visited by school parties when the fish are caught. It demonstrates that a protected area in addition to preserving environmental integrity can also serve to protect old traditions and activities, allowing them to continue to exist. Out at sea Patrizio interviews the president of the Camogli Fishermen’s Cooperative, Simone Gambazza: the cooperative includes about fifty fishermen, who live on fishing which they do in the same way as two hundred years ago, without the help of technologies that would simplify their work by signalling when it is time to raise the nets, but would make it banal and boring. Simone is very proud of his work, which allows him to lead an outdoor life, without anybody giving him orders – no envy for anyone in an office!