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TRAVEL
Portofino (Ligurian: Portofin) Italy
Welcome to this small Italian fishing village, comune and tourist resort located in the province of Genoa on the Italian Riviera.
The town crowded round its small harbour is considered to be among the most beautiful Mediterranean ports.
According to Pliny the Elder, Portofino was founded by the Romans and named Portus Delphini, or Port of the Dolphin, because of the large number of dolphins that inhabited the Tigullian Gulf.
The village is mentioned in a diploma from 986 by Adelaide of Italy, which assigned it to the nearby Abbey of San Fruttoso di Capodimonte. In 1171, together with the neighbouring Santa Margherita Ligure, it was included in Rapallo's commune jurisdiction.
After 1229 it was part of the Republic of Genoa.
Portofino has inspired a re-creation of the sea side town around the harbour at Tokyo DisneySea in Chiba, Japan, a full scale replication, in authentic detail at the Portofino Bay at Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, USA, which opened in September 1999.
Portofino also featured on Top Gear in Episode 5, Series 12 where Richard Hammond, in a Ferrari Daytona raced James May in a carbon fibre powerboat from Portofino to St Tropez.