Splendido, A Belmond Hotel

Portofino is a very small harbour that has spent a century absorbing a very large amount of glamour, and the Splendido is where most of it has stayed. The building began as a sixteenth-century Benedictine monastery, became a private villa, and opened as a hotel in 1901.

It sits high on the hillside above the village, reached by a switchback drive through pine and olive, and the separation is the point. You look down on the harbour rather than sitting in it, which on an August afternoon is worth a great deal.

The Gardens and the Pool

The gardens are terraced down the slope in the Ligurian manner, all bougainvillea, lemon and clipped hedge, and they are maintained to an obsessive standard. Walking them in the early morning, before anyone else is up, is one of the quiet pleasures of the place.

The saltwater pool sits on a terrace with the bay laid out below. It is not enormous and on peak days the loungers go early, which is the one genuine constraint on an otherwise faultless operation.

Rooms, and the Sister Hotel

Rooms are classically Italian rather than fashionably minimal, with painted furniture, tiled floors and, in the best of them, a private terrace over the water. The sea-view rooms are worth the premium here more than at almost any other hotel I can think of, because the view is the entire reason to be up the hill.

Belmond also runs Splendido Mare down on the harbour front, which is a different and much smaller hotel. If you want to be in the village rather than above it, that is the one to book, and the two properties share facilities.

Getting About

The hotel runs a shuttle down to the harbour continuously, which you will use more than you expect, since the walk back up is genuinely steep. Boats can be arranged for the Cinque Terre, San Fruttuoso abbey, or simply an afternoon swimming off the point.

Book a table at the harbour restaurants in advance in summer. Portofino has very few of them and the whole coast tries to eat there in August.

The Verdict

The definitive Italian Riviera hotel, and one of the few places whose reputation and reality actually match. Come in late May or September, take a sea-view room, and do not attempt to walk up from the village after dinner.