The tall houses on the sea
On the western side of the Portofino promontory, Camogli is one of the most authentic and picturesque seaside villages of Liguria. Its symbol is the long row of very tall houses, six, seven or even eight floors high, painted in warm colours, yellow, ochre, pink and red, with green shutters and painted trompe-l'oeil decorations, false windows, cornices and balconies, lined up along the seafront above a pebble beach. According to tradition, the houses were so tall and so colourful so that the sailors, returning from long voyages, could recognise their homes from the sea.
In the nineteenth century, Camogli was a great seafaring town, known as the "city of the thousand white sailing ships", with a fleet of hundreds of sailing ships that sailed the oceans; the Maritime Museum preserves models, paintings and memories of that period. Next to the small harbour, on a rocky spur, stand the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta and the Castello della Dragonara, a medieval fortress. Camogli is famous for two traditional festivals: the Sagra del Pesce, on the second Sunday of May, when tons of fish are fried in a giant frying pan about four metres in diameter and distributed to visitors, and the Stella Maris, on the first Sunday of August, a procession of boats to Punta Chiappa, where thousands of small floating candles are placed on the sea at night. From Camogli, boats and paths lead to San Fruttuoso, Punta Chiappa and Portofino.
Tip: taste the focaccia col formaggio in one of the bakeries on the seafront; the view of the village from the sea is the most beautiful.
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