Portofino has undoubtedly been a destination that I will never forget. The most romantic and fun surprise weekend I've ever had and the best surprise of my life.
A year ago Juanje asked me again to marry him. After 25 years together, she wanted to remarry me, I'll be lucky! And to ask me he chose the most romantic and beautiful destination that can exist.
Two days before leaving, she told me "Thursday at 4 you have to be ready. Suitcase with some beach and something arranged with a lot of glamour. I'm not going to tell you where we're going but I'll tell you that there's a beach and we've never been."
Just those two sentences were enough to light up my face and make my eyes shine "A surprise?" I asked. He didn't answer. I immediately called my sister (who knew it but didn't tell me anything) "That's going to take you to Cuenca" she told me laughing, "Chanchi, but how to Cuenca, mema, there is no beach there, besides he is not going to organize something surprise to take me here next door, right?".
So without clues and without having a clue but with a thousand hearts, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon of that Thursday I was ready. We arrived at the airport and we were dizzying the partridge until just as they were going to close the flight, he took me to the boarding gate "Bergamo" "But we were not going to a new destination? Asked. He did answer, so it was clear that the final destination was not Bergamo because we had already been.
Upon arrival we took a rental car to start a trip of 2 and a half hours that lasted 4 because the road was under construction. No idea of my destination until a policeman asked us where we were going to help us get by an alternative route: final destination "Portofino" and my head could only think of one of the most romantic and beautiful places in the world, with which I had dreamed many times and in which I had no idea what was going to happen.
We arrived at the hotel Splendido Mare, almost at 3 in the morning and they were waiting for us with champagne, some chocolates and the most beautiful room you can imagine overlooking the port.
The next morning it was time to get up early in paradise. Breakfast and we walked out of the hotel towards the port "Buongiorno, Signor Peláez" we were greeted by a "capitano" who was waiting for us in the most beautiful wooden corvetta you can imagine. It was 10 o'clock in the morning when we set sail to enjoy the area from the sea and tour the most beautiful coves in a deep blue sea like I had never seen before and that totally reminded of the Armani blue, that deep Italian blue that always makes you think of summer.
If you visit the area do not hesitate to do this boat trip, you can make it private like us or you can hire the group tour and visit like us San Fruttuoso with one of the most beautiful beaches of Luguria and where we dive to see one of the most incredible monuments you have ever seen in the sea: the Christ of the Abyss, a spectacular bronze statue 17 meters underwater that is considered the Christ of the Ocean. It was our first swim in Liguria and completely unforgettable.
We also visited Camogli one of the most beautiful fishing villages on the Ligurian coast just 15 km from Portofino with its colorful balconies and its port full of fishing boats that conquered my heart.
We arrived back in Portofino after having enjoyed a morning of sea, sun and prosecco enjoying the "dolce far niente" to eat at Da I Gemelli, one of the most popular restaurants in the port of Portofino where we had Spaghetti with prawns from Santa Margarita and troffie al pesto (light food because we had a table reserved at 7 in "I'm not going to tell you".
After lunch, we spent the afternoon visiting Portofino. Its streets are ideal dotted with small shops and some with a lot of glamour and where the bouganvillias have the most beautiful colors you can imagine.
We went up to see the Castello Brown, located at the top of the hill and from which the view of Portofino is one of the most beautiful pictures in Italy. We could also see (from afar) the villas that Dolce and Gabana have in the area with the gardens are spectacular.
Back at the hotel "get pretty and elegant but do not delay me" A car picked us up to take us to the most beautiful and romantic place that exists in Italy and that I had seen so many times in photos. "Buona sera, Signor Peláez"
"Ummm how?, But do they know you here?" Yes," he replied, "of so many times that I have had half the world pending all the details of today, wait and see."
And there I was, in the same place where I had seen so many celebrities, at a table next to the veranda, with a movie view, and the emotion on the surface. An amazing dinner with live piano music. We finished dinner and Juanje went to the bathroom. When I returned, the most magical and romantic moment I have lived in my life arrived. I still do not know very well how, knee to the ground, I began to cry and put on my finger the ring that meant that after 30 years together, it would be being the best, the one who had taken all the trouble to prepare a magical weekend, surprise without me having any idea and with all the details thought so that even today I continue to doubt if it really happened or was a dream. Obviously I said yes.
The next morning we went to Cinque Terre and I promise to bring you soon the route we did. Returning to Portofino after a fantastic day, we got ready and went to dinner at the port. Juanje had booked at the restaurant Pescefino, the last restaurant in the port in front of the Church of San Giorgio a little before the climb to the castle. Fish and seafood in a restaurant planted with lights, like all the port and that has been one of the most beautiful places in the. world where we dined
The next morning after breakfast at the hotel, we decided to rent some kayaks and spend the morning paddling from here to there, touring the coast of Portofino, its coves and corners impossible to access from land. It was an excursion at our own pace and it was a plan with mmil sticks in every corner and many laughs. Happy girl. Happier impossible I would say.
At the hotel they prepared a picnic for us for the car because it was time to return to the airport. A weekend that even today makes me cry and laugh in equal parts. How beautiful Portofino and how beautiful love when you have guapetones.
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