Probably because it’s really starting to be “low season” around here, I was upgraded to the corner suite on the top floor of the hotel. I guess they figured they had to give it to someone, so why not me.
The room was very nice, modern, and clean as a whistle. Then I opened the drapes, and the glass doors behind them, and walked out onto my private balcony. This is the scene that greeted me. “Welcome to Portovenere … your new favorite town in Italy!”
Who wouldn’t love this place? It’s not only photogenic. It comes with a deep history. The Romans used this port for their fleets of battleships as they launched attacks on “Cisalpine Gaul” (“Gaul, this side of the Alps”). Mark Anthony and Octavian united their armies in this area after the death of Julius Caesar and ultimately added this part of Italy to the empire. Admiral Pleny the elder used it as a northern home port for his Roman fleet in the 70’s A.D. when Vespasian was emperor in Rome.
The high fortress (the “Castello Doria”) is certainly more recent vintage, although built on top of Roman lookout points. It was greatly expanded under the governance of Genoa (the large Italian port city to the north), and in 1797 it was surrendered to Napoleon (who eventually took over most of Italy). He turned the Portovenere fortress into a prison for political enemies. The fort is easily accessible (if you can climb stairs and ramps) and explorable. 
I noticed that these ancient arches inside the fortress now contain a modern element. Those panels suspended between each arch are solar panels to power the lights that illuminate the fort at night, another beautiful sight to behold. 
I also really liked just walking the back streets of this little town. It’s not “just a tourist attraction.” I had returned to the town just as school let out Monday afternoon. Suddenly the narrow streets were filled with happy kids chirping Italian at the top of their lungs. I wonder if they were that exuberant in class today.Below the fortress is the city cemetery. I mention this because if you’ve never visited an Italian cemetery, you should take that opportunity if possible. They aren’t like our cemeteries. Each tomb is above ground, and they all contain durable photographs of the occupant, with fresh flowers placed in little attached vases. Somehow this seems a more fitting form of memorial than the engraved stones we’re used to seeing in the States.
This photo is the marker for little Rolando Sturlese, born 1948, died at age 8 in 1956. The inscription below the photo says it was placed there by his parents, his brother, and his sisters. The yellow mums were fresh-cut and placed in water-filled goblets attached to the stone. Who was this little Rolando? What was he like? I wish I knew, but that does't matter. He's still remembered, 56 years later, by someone.My only disappointment in Portovenere, and it was minor, was dinner at Da Iseo. The waiter had one of those painfully forced smiles that just don’t seem right … unreal, not from a smiling heart. Worse was the fact that the pesto wasn’t as good as what I make at home in Dallas. It had the consistency of mayonnaise. I think this was mass-produced “tourist pesto” – which is a misdemeanor, for sure, on the Ligurian coast, where pesto is supposed to have been invented. Still, I’ll come back to this town again some day.
