That colourful town, with houses painted ochre, yellow and pink, and a small bay dotted with boats, is Santa Margherita Ligure.
From the seafront, lined with boutiques, shops and restaurants, you can still feel a lively, retro mood, almost like something from the carefree 1960s.
From here, the façades look like pastel sketches. But up close, you can see the painted details and the typical Ligurian trompe-l’œil: windows, cornices and shutters painted so well that they seem real.
Santa Margherita is also known for its old noble villas. The most famous is Villa Durazzo. You can spot it even from here: a large red building with green window frames, partly hidden among palms and pines.
It is a seventeenth-century complex with a formal Italian garden overlooking the sea.
Notice the palms along the promenade and the yachts in the marina. In this elegant setting, two much older buildings stand out and tell us about the town’s past and its faith.
One is the sixteenth-century castle, a solid stone fort with a square base. The other is the Basilica di Santa Margherita, with its dome and white façade in Ligurian Baroque style.

The town sits like a pearl against a green, rugged hillside.
This is also where the Portofino Marine Protected Area begins, stretching all the way to Camogli.