At a cute fisherman’s cottage in 1,500-year-old San Fruttuoso village our writer has a secluded bay amid romantic Romanesque splendour almost to herself
• Win a stay at a Grade II-listed Landmark Trust building
It’s dusk. The bay is empty and silent and the bell tower is black against the navy sky. We’re following a shadowy path around the monastery: up steps, down steps, up some more steps (Liguria has more steps than an Escher drawing), when there’s a comically loud snort and the rustling of something large in the undergrowth. Ahead, a stripy piglet trots faster, swerves and gallops up the bank towards its mother’s summoning grunts. I can’t imagine Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton running into wild boars when they holidayed on the Italian Riviera – but then again, maybe they never visited San Fruttuoso.
This picturebook-romantic Romanesque monastery with a handful of houses attached is tucked between the faded pinks and yellows of laid-back seaside resort Camogli and chi chi Portofino, with its superyachts and Dior boutiques selling €1,000 sandals. There’s a strip of pebbly beach bookended by trattorias – La Giovanni one side and Giorgio the other – a few fishing boats and a population of 25 people (only four year round).
I can’t imagine Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton running into wild boars when they holidayed on the Italian Riviera
Continue reading...