A SECRET STAIRCASE IN PORTOFINO

Rapallo, Liguria, September 2003

I was staying in Rapallo, a little town on the Ligurian coast. To the west are the towns of Santa Margarita and Portofino, and to the east is the Cinque Terra and Pisa. Portofino was one of those romantic exotic places you hear about, and there was a regular ferry service from Rapallo.

It was a magical, shimmering Sunday morning. A short ferry ride took us to Portofino, which was nothing like I had imagined. Just a small cove, really – very pretty and picturesque, but surprising. To my right, along the narrow street running along the water were two and three storey traditional picture postcard buildings painted in rich pink and orange tones. On the left, and up the hill behind the piazza were the palazzos and mansions that one associates with Portofino.

In the centre was a wide piazza surrounded by the bars, coffee shops and restaurants so much a part of Italy.

Along the front of the piazza, in the jetty area closest to the water were splashes of colour from dozens of little upturned boats. Some belonged to those large and very luxurious moored yachts, but others looked somewhat more worn and hardworking – like the local fishermen who owned them.

I sat for a while with my coffee watching the world go by. Sunday is a family day, and many groups were enjoying the day and the idyllic location. The return ferry was later, so I decided to do some exploring.

Up a little alley and a narrow staircase onto the road. I began to walk back towards Santa Margarita.  Walking on roads in Italy can be dangerous. In many places there are no footpaths and the roads are just wide enough for two cars to pass. But the drivers are used to people walking, and are mostly quite courteous, slowing down. I suspect that the ones that don’t are the tourists.

As you can imagine, there are some grand old houses here, in various states of repair. Most are pristine, with beautiful gardens and statues, and ornamental pots and fancy urns. On the sea side, their doors – tall, wide, carved from wood, stained or painted, with shiny brass fittings – open onto the street, and the gardens are terraced down to the water. No garages or driveways, if they have cars, they’re parked somewhere else. Lots of beautiful leafy trees and shrubs everywhere, and always the glimpses of the sea.

On my walk back, I found the secret staircase – certainly one of the highlights of my trip so far. Hidden by a big tree was a little gate with nothing to say Private Property, or Keep Out. The stairs were narrow and very old, crumbly stone, steep, with a very high rise. At the bottom was the Mediterranean – well the bay, but still part of it. Just like the pictures, a clean crisp green in the shallows, graduating to the deepest glittery blue.

The steps ended with a path along the edge of the water, which I followed. I found myself in a tiny cove, amid crumbling old fortifications built of a pale blue-grey stone. A beach of pebbly sand and bits of a broken wall sat in front of an impressive looking house up at road level, and a garden that just seemed to be trees and lawns. 

Although it felt like a very safe place to be, I didn’t wander too far, just sat on the old stone wall and took it all in.  The water lapping, the soft hue of the stone, the rich colours of the house, the sun shining on the water, and on the leaves of the trees. Magic!

At the far end, close to the stairs was a little tower, maybe three or four metres high with slits cut on two sides – one looks out to sea, the other back towards Portofino harbour.  

I imagined someone sitting there on watch, looking out for the pirates who used to frequent these waters a couple of hundred years ago. I didn’t try to get into the tower, though I would have loved to.  I went mad with the camera, of course!

On the way back up, I counted the stairs – there were seventy, and a lot steeper going up than down, but I was floating a little bit, and maybe didn’t notice too much.

Feeling euphoric – this was one of the (few) times in my travels that it would have been nice to have someone to share the experience with – I headed back down to the piazzetta for a cappuccino and biscotti, before the ferry back.