It’s easy to see why writers W. B. Yeats and Ezra Pound found inspiration in Rapallo. In many ways, the town is a bigger version of nearby Portofino. Townhouses come in summery sorbet colours – tangerine, lemon, pistachio, vanilla – and throw in elegant façades, green shutters and terracotta roofs for good measure. Italian-label clothes boutiques and classically dressed restaurants stock their ground floors.
But that’s where the similarities stop. Rapallo is bigger than Portofino, so there’s more for your to-do list. The harbour is busy with boats heading for neighbouring cliffside towns, and a 16th-century pirate watchtower still guards the water. A handful of sand and pebble beaches scallop the town, too. Lido & Flora comes with a couple of swimming pools, while San Michele offers the best sea-view trattorias.
The foothills of the Apennines rise up behind Rapallo. You could dip into the local golf course (rare in these parts) or catch a cable car up to the marble Sanctuary of Our Lady of Montallegro.
