We are taking you to one of the prettiest
places on the planet right here, Portofino. And later in the program we will take you
to Santa Margherita Ligure, another beautiful town on the Italian Riviera. Well, to get there were driving from Santa
Margherita. It's about 3 miles along the coastline, and
you pass a little beach along the way and a few isolated houses, but mostly it's this
winding, curvy, cliff-hugging seaside road. It's really scenic. You can get there by city bus. It's an inexpensive bus ride, under two euro,
only takes about 15 minutes. In our case were going by a private shuttle
van because of our schedule, and this worked out really nicely. They took us right in the heart of town. It's a little village, easy to walk around. There are some shops, there are about half
a dozen streets, and the view. This is one of the great views of the world. And we are going to show you how to get that
view, especially at twilight, how nice. We got here kind of late in the afternoon,
and so right away first thing we want to walk up the hill while the lighting is good. Yes, it's a bit of an uphill climb, but not
so bad, and it's worth it because you will get some super views. That’s the first glimpse you get, but keep
going because it gets better. You a little bit higher – only takes about
15 minutes at most to walk up here, or ten if you are a good walker. There's the view that you're going to get. That is spectacular. You can go a little further. You don't have to go much further than that. Maybe up to the church. We’ re here in the off-season, it's November,
so there's not very many other people around, which makes it very convenient for us. As you get to the top you'll see the small
castle of St. George and next to it is the church of St. George, which makes a great
observation lookout for enjoying the view down below, and you don't need to go beyond
that, because here is where you get that perfect view looking back at the little cove of Portofino. And this is a great time of day to be here. You get the natural lighting, you get the
streetlights on, the shop lights are coming on. So the church lookout is a great spot to see
the town from. We'll get back down to the village in a moment
and show you around. There's a couple of shops, there is a couple
of restaurants in this season. Some students from Ukraine also visiting,
taking their pictures. The water was a little choppy this evening,
it was high tide with water splashing up over the dock there. It’s a protected marina. Portofino is world-famous as a home for yachts
and the visiting jet-set, and the millionaires and the billionaires. But there are some affordable accommodations
that we will show you in a moment, and there's local residents, of course in Portofino, a
very small population some ordinary neighborhood shops. But there are not very many accommodations
here. It’s more of a daytrip. You might stay nearby at Santa Margherita,
as we’ re doing, and there's a lot of hotels in Santa Margherita. We will show you signs for some hotels and
bed and breakfasts. You don't have to stay at the most fancy five-star
deluxe hotel if you want to stay in Portofino. But here you go, there are some B&Bs, three-star
hotels, four-star hotels. Hotel Splendido is probably the top choice,
but they’ re closed from November through March. You get into the residential neighborhood
just up the hill, and then it's time to go, hopping on our bus. We shared the bus ride with these young university
students. They are students in economics in Ukraine,
in the capital city of Kiev. And little did the students know on their
holiday, that they were going to be walking right back into a battle zone. Fortunately, the revolution turned out well
for the people. The old president was kicked out. Very friendly folks. And in just about 15 minutes, the bus delivers
you right back into Santa Margherita Ligure. We discovered that Santa Margherita is not
only a convenient place to stay because of its numerous hotels, and restaurants, and
shops, but it’s also a beautiful town. It’s right along the shores of the Ligurian
Sea. There’s a big marina and there is a delightful
old town with the pedestrian zone – lots of locals out. The train station is located right in the
town itself and so if you're traveling light, you could most likely just walk from the train
station to your hotel. Most of the hotels are within 1/2 a mile or
at most 1 mile away, but in our case we got suitcases and the small group and so were
going to have taxis shuttle us right over to the hotel, and we’re going to start touring
immediately. We decided to stay in Santa Margherita because
it's just 3 miles away from Portofino and just a little bit further away from Cinque
Terre, which are the main attractions of this coastline. We have discovered that Santa Margherita is
a classic town in its own right. It's a bright little town full of light and
color, which came into being originally with the merging of two small adjacent villages,
and now it’s formed in one beautiful spread along the coastline. It's ironic that Santa Margherita is not as
famous as those other destinations, but it's just as nice. There is a charming waterfront park and promenade
with benches and landscaping, beautiful palm trees, statues and fountains, and old, orange-colored
and brown buildings nestled right up against the harbor with their sidewalk cafes and shopfronts. In Santa Margherita Liguori were staying at
the Lauren hotel. It’ s four stars, and it's right on the
waterfront, great location, just a hundred meters away from the center of town where
you got all the restaurants and the Piazza, the pedestrian lanes in the passeggiata in
the evening. So consider Hotel Lauren when you're in Santa
Margherita Ligure. This park has a statue of Christopher Columbus,
seemingly pointing out across the sea at the New World. Well it’s because Columbus is reputed to
have been from the area, from Genoa, which is about 25 miles north from here along the
coastline. And therefore he might have even spent some
time right here in Santa Margherita at some point during his career. Like many, if not most Italian towns, there
is a statue in honor of Garibaldi, the great hero. He led the battle for independence of Italy
as a sovereign nation. When you get away from the waterfront and
step into the old town, just a block away, you'll find some very charming sidewalks covered
by arcades with big pillars and shopfronts. The arcades are a great place to stroll and
gather, protects you from the elements, and then there are some open plazas right nearby. It's the traditional evening passeggiata where
all the local folks come out for a stroll. It’s after work, it’s before dinner. The families are gathering largest, there’s
artists in the street, there’s lots of kids out playing. And sometimes you’ll get lucky and come
across a very special family scene like this – a bunch of young kids and one of the dads
posing them. That's a challenge, posing the a group photo. This scene with the kids having fun and the
local townspeople walking around is just an example of how Santa Margherita Ligure is
really a local place. It's less of a touristic spot and more of
an authentic Italian small-town experience. It's a safe place, it’s a friendly place
and yet it has a good variety of shops and restaurants and hotels that can really take
care of the visitor. The town center is a pedestrian zone with
several streets and piazzas just for people. No cars allowed. This is typical of what you're finding throughout
Europe nowadays. We’re getting hungry, and there's quite
a few restaurant choices, and we got lucky with an excellent place with a very friendly
waiter. Ristorante da Michele, my name is Cebus. This is Santa Margherita and this is
Ristorante da Michele. Welcome. It really was quite a spectacular experience. Everybody in Hawaii, ciao. [people speaking]
We were having a relatively early dinner. It was only about 7 o'clock. But we had a long day and we were hungry and
ready to eat and we’ re American tourists after all, eating early. Europeans generally eat about 8 PM or 9 PM. Many restaurants don't even open until 8 PM. Is the gnocchi, tagliatelle, handmade? This is open, we have it all to ourselves
because of that early hour. Great service, incredible foods, fresh pasta,
and great vegetables, and terrific wine to go with it. What a package. And we enjoyed the regional specialties. The muscles and calamari, some whitefish,
crab, pesto, ok a la Bolognese. That's the trophie, it’s the handrolled
fresh pasta with a pesto sauce, and the pesto is from the area because the hillsides cultivate
a lot of basil. [people speaking]
thank you very much, Mr. Bush. We’ll see you again, take care. Bye-bye. Followed by a little after dinner stroll to
work off that amazing meal. And the town is still jumping with lots of
people out walking. Another good reason for staying here is that
there is a wide variety of hotels that you can stay at in Santa Margherita, ranging from
four-star deluxe right down to budget economy in all sizes and categories, so it makes a
real good home base. Quite a few of the buildings are 300 and 400
years old, so you really do get quite a feeling for a history here in Santa Margherita. There's an outstanding Baroque church and
many of the painted decorations on the buildings hearken back to the Baroque, and even the
rococo eras. The area has quite a history. It started out as several separate villages
and then in 1812 they were joined together by Napoleon, who named them after himself
calling it Porto Napoleone. However, three years later, with the fall
of Napoleon, all that was undone and the city was transferred to the kingdom of Piedmont
and Sardinia and renamed as Santa Margherita. The hotel breakfast is just what you would
hope to find in a very nice four-star hotel in Italy. A big spread there with your cold cuts, your
meats and cheeses, there's rolls and fruits of course, there’s yogurts, and coffee. [Coffee machine noise]
You lift it right out, fresh brewed coffee, cappuccino. It’s
There's different kinds of beverages available. And it's a very nice setting. We have tables with a view looking out at
the waterfront just right across the street, just ideal. You been watching our visit to Santa Margherita
Ligure which is part of our tour, visiting Cinque Terre and Portofino, nearby areas. And we have many more episodes of video showing
you those wonderful places: the five villages of Cinque Terre, incredible, and Portofino,
one of the world's most famous jet-set destinations. Well, this morning we’ re heading out that
away for our visit to Cinque Terre. It's about an hour and 20 minute train ride
from Santa Margherita. And the weather does not look too promising. The forecast is for scattered showers throughout
the day. Right now there is just a little mist in the
air, but we will see how the day develops. We’re going anyway, and rain or shine, Cinque
Terre is a beautiful place to visit. Well, we’re taking a walk from the hotel
along the waterfront promenade in Santa Margherita. Actually were heading for the train station. We’re going to be riding down to Cinque
Terre for today. But that's a different movie. For this film were just showing you Santa
Margherita. Look at our other movies for our adventures
in Cinque Terre and Portofino the nearby attractions here, close to Santa Margherita. And check it out, and we will show you much
more of the area. We’re walking over to the train station
which is only about 10 to 20 minutes away from any hotel in town. So convenient, Santa Margherita Ligure station
connects internationally all over Europe. It's a major train station, and it also has
some of the local trains that connect directly down to Cinque Terre. So it really is great connection spot. So you wait around for the train, hang out,
and sure enough, it comes. You get there about five minutes ahead of
time, that’s all you need to do. They are never early, sometimes they’re
a little late. So, the train arrives, you get on. In the off-season, not crowded at all. It's mostly second-class cars on these local
train, so you don't need a first-class ticket. The conductor comes around, punches your ticket
out, and you get some scenery out the windows and soon enough you have arrived at your next
destination, so stay tuned and travel with us throughout Cinque Terre. We upload a new movie every week so please
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