FOOD AND WINE WEEKEND IN LIGURIA: PORTOFINO, CINQUE TERRE AND GENOA

THE HOTEL – Your stay in an elegant, cosy, family-run hotel set in a charming Belle Epoque building. The villa is surrounded by a beautiful garden of Mediterranean bushes and brightly coloured flowers and overlooks the gulf of Portofino . A gourmand restaurant offers the guests the pleasures of a genuine, simple yet refined cuisine. Amenities: Technogym with massage corner, steam bath, complimentary internet point, relax corner with jacuzzi for aromotherapy and cromotherapy, electrical bycicles (on request), Wireless internet, Solarium, music room will, beach at 300 mt form hotel.
PORTOFINO - The second day is dedicated to Camogli, Portofino and Rapallo. Besides visiting these breath taking sites and travelling part of the day on a private boat tour, our gourmet expert Guido Poratti will introduce you to some of Italy’s very best wine and food products: very special cheeses, hams, salamis , wines and of course pesto during an instructive lunch at the very best gourmet shop in the region.
You’ll arrive in CAMOGLI and start by letting your inner self drift softly into the aerial, luminous, siren-song view. A small private boat will take you to SAN FRUTTUOSO, a fine fourteenth-century gothic abbey set back into a tiny cliff-lined bay accessible only from the sea or by a narrow, tortuous trail over the mountain. Laura, your guide for the day will tell you more about the remote history and traditions of this astonishing part of Italy. Thence onward by the same boat to  PORTOFINO, the wee idyllic horseshoe-bay fishing village that has managed to preserve so much unspoiled colour and character in spite of having become a world-famous visitors’ magnet  its diminutive size and inaccessibility by land have kept it pure (small buses can come on a winding coast road but must discharge their passengers, turn around and leave at once . . . there is no space for them to stay). You visit a castle perched on a high rocky promontory with a memorable panoramic view of both Portofino bay and the open sea (for groups). In Rapallo your gourmet guru will be an esteemed food-author, who will introduce you to choice wines and a buffet of local foods. A stroll in Rapallo will take this memorable day to its end. 

GENOVA - You arrive in Genoa and stay in a wonderful four star Hotel overlooking the sea skyline. The first day is dedicated to a guided city gourmet tour of this beautiful and unknown-to-the-most Mediterranean city. Genoa is not a showy city, its distinct mysterious character is revealed only by walking in the alleys, discovering its sounds, its odours and the people. The small restaurants and cafés often offer excellent products, needles to say the famous pesto from Genoa. The Ligurian cuisine is poor but extraordinarily delicate and, in its own way, exotic and modern as harbour flavours are. Paola will accompany on a walk through the labyrinth of steep narrow streets. You will visit a chocolate shop and its wonderful old-time atmospheres, have lunch in a very good local restaurant, visit the food market and, of course, see the major architectural and artistic attractions.

CINQUE TERRE - The Cinque Terre: five stunning towns perched on seaside cliffs overlooking the sparkling mediterranean Sea. Breathtaking vistas await you around every bend in the trail as it winds through the vineyards and olive groves of the most picturesque part of the Italian Riviera. Five small fishing villages connected by a narrow, winding, steep and arduous, rock-laden and root-crossed trail, an eight-hour trek from end to end. A narrow-gauge, rattling, tootling railway was built along the coast to link them in 1904-08 and trains still run, but alas no longer drawn by steam! Weather you walk, go by train or take a boat ride from one town to the next, the experience will leave you long lasting images and memories.
Each Village has its own distinct character and offers different amenities. Your knowledgeable, friendly guide will tell you more about these unique villages, their history and traditions and take attentive care of you for the day. In one village you’ll meet Walter, a very determined and passionate wine producer in whose Lilliputian cellar, hidden in the doorway of a steep stairway, you’ll taste his lovely and unusual product, hardly at all available on the market owing to his small output. A tasting lunch of traditional Ligurian food is served in a good local restaurant by the sea. 

Please email us for details on pricing - available all year round aand fully customizable for any group size or length of stay.