Not Really How to : Portofino, Italian Riviera, Italy

Portofino, 28 July 2022 | Summer

Actually I kind a feels like I want to write down everything because I realize that without this blog everything will just faded into memory, which maybe I will forget couple years later. So I will keep writing this travel series as I prefer. 

This blog for sure, not the best travel blog, because this blog is not a travel blog in the first place. Its just a platform to write down what I like. So while I am refreshing to the Spanish Government website to get the TIE appointment, let's get down to the real deal. 

What is Portofino?

Portofino is a commune in Genova, it is one of the very famous Italian Riviera, known for small luxurious harbor and colorful building in the shore. Based on my experience, Portofino in my opinion is very cute and beautiful. There is not a lot of things to do except you own a private boat. This place is a jet set, expensive place, but this place is worth for one day visit (maybe if you visit Genoa or Cinque Terre, or even do a day trip from Novara which is possible, you should definitely check Portofino).

How to get there?

1. Take the train to Santa Margherita Ligure-Portofino Station (from Novara it will take 3,5 hours, you can go at 06:00 and arrived at 10:00).

2. From here take the 7385 bus to Portofino.

In order to go to the "real Portofino" you can walk for around 1,5 hours or you can take the 30 minutes bus. You can to take the bus directly from the stop near train station. 

Bus stop to real Portofino in front of the Santa Margherita Ligure-Portofino train station

The bus schedule

How do you buy the bus ticket? When you arrived in the Santa Margherita Ligure-Portofino station, there is a tabaccheria on the left side of the building. There you can buy a return ticket for the bus to Portofino (it will cost you 5Euro back and forth) in this tabaccheria. Remember this tabaccheria accept cash only. 

There bus ticket will look like this and there will be 2 sides (Andata means going -> validate it when you are going to Portofino, and Ritorno means back --> validate it when you are going back to Santa Margherita Ligure).

Another way to buy the bus ticket is by taping your debit card directly to the device on the bus. But this will cost you 3Euro one way, so it will be 1 Euro more expensive. 

There is this device, and some of passengers also use this device by tapping their visa/mastercard debit/credit card, it will cost you 3 Euro. 

Remember to validate the ticket. There are 2 ways to validate it : 1) On the bus 2) On the device near the bus stop. There will be random checking, so never get on the bus without buying ticket. 

 

You can also buy the ticket in the machine, that machine also works to validate the ticket before boarding to the bus. Once the ticket is validated it will active for 60 minutes if I am not mistaken. The bus stop will look like this.

What to do in Portofino?

You will need cute outfit, but you will hike a lot. For me I went here to take a good photos, so I really need to get to the best spot, and the best spot is uphill. 

1. Strolling around the port and the city. The city is cute and full of authentic Italian restaurants and it also have spots to do luxury shopping. But if you just broke student like me, strolling around is nice. 

 

2. Walking up to the church and cemetery. For me this is definitely highlight of the trip, you can see the whole Portofino with the cute iconic houses, boats from this side. You need to go up a little bit. The view from the road leads to the church is amazing and it has a lot of shades, and there are chairs as well if you want to sit down a bit to enjoy your snacks and cola to see the view is possible. 

3. Walking up to the castle brown. You need to hike up again, a little bit and pay 5 Euro to enter the castle, you can pay by card or cash. For me, this one is also worthed. There is a La Dolce Vita movie shooting location in this castle and the view from the castle is breathtaking. 

I think that's it about Portofino. Here.. everything for me is expensive, so I bring my own coca cola, water, snack and lunch to eat (I just went there to take photos). I did not pay for anything here except paying for the castle entrance and transportation, because I know Portofino is a jet set, luxurious place which is packed with wealthy tourist that come by their private boat. 

But this place is worth one day visit. There are other activities as well like cruising around and swimming, but I didn't try because at that time when I went it was freakin hot, but for sure you can try! Let me know if you visit Portofino and you like it. 

Not Really How to Napoli: The Chaotic Naples

Napoli or Naples is one of the most famous tourism site in Italy. I was there, because of Pompeii. If you knew in Quran there was verse about Pompeii. Pompeii is very similar to Luth Prophet story, or in Bible they called it Sodom and Gamora. Even we didn’t really know who is the prophet at that time, but definitely I’m going to Napoli because of Pompeii. 

My friends warned me about Naples. They said “Don’t go there, It’s dangerous”. But when I went there, I knew it was different for the rest of Italy but it was okay (well honestly I have this mindset because Athens is way worse than Naples, so nothing can shock me anymore). Ok without further do Lets jump to the travel stuff directly..

Solo Traveling and Timing

For those that brave enough to go alone, hats off. But just for your own convenience, better go with friends at least two. Just because Naples can be very intimidating and confusing, some alleys is really narrow and dark so if you are with friends it is way better.

The best timing to go to Naples I think during June-July period, because it is not so packed with tourists (it’s affordable) but you also have enough sun to go around at least until 21:00. We are lucky now the sun set at 21:00, so when we stroll around until 20:00 the sun still there, the alleys was not dark. And to be honest we were never go back when it’s already dark. We make sure that we went back around 20:00 when the sun still out.

Naples's alley. Its okay to walk with friends, when the daylight still there. But alone? Not really fun,

Where to stay in Naples?

I think everyone will tell you that staying near Garibaldi Area is the worst. And I think that’s true. That busiest area is packed with people, not the cleanest and looks shady to be frank. 

Due to this information we have before. We choose to stay in a Bed and Breakfast 1.2 km from Garibaldi Area, and the neighborhood was super fine and the road is not shady . But when we went near the Principe Amedeo station, honestly the neighborhood is wayy better. It was super clean and not shady, if you can find something near that station, better to stay there. 

How much to stay in Naples? We are really worried because the price of the room started sky rocketed due to the “summer vacation coming up” but we are lucky to find this B&B called “Napora” it cost 17€ per person per night, it’s super clean, private bathroom with AC, self check-in, free 2 bottles of water, refrigerator, TV, 1.2 km from Garibaldi station and only few meters from Duomo Metro station. It’s pretty strategic and not shady neighborhood.

The beds are bunk beds but no problem because it is super comfortable. They have different kind a room so if you are going to Naples, Napora is very recommended.

How to get around 

From and to the Airport

From Naples airport you can take "Alibus" for 5€ (remember to bring cash) and you can buy ticket directly in the bus. The bus will stop at Garibaldi station and other stop, remember where to drop yourself off. To go back from airport, you can take the bus from Garibaldi station, the schedule in google is accurate but remember each bus will do the loading-unloading passengers for 15 minutes, so the bus that schedule 15:15 will leave garibaldi at 15:30. Remember that Naples street is chaotic and traffic jammed everywhere. In fact you will need 40 minutes to 1 hour from the bus leaving garibaldi to arrive at the airport.

   

Getting Around Naples

You can walk. We actually walk like a lot. But you can also use metro for 1.1€ for line 1 and 1.3€ for line 2. Remember that each lines has different tickets. Because line 1 is operated my ANM (the local company) and line 2 is operated by Trenitalia. We just found out this stuff when we buy the ticket, don’t get confused because we were also very confused.

If you are going from Garibaldi, you want to buy the metro ticket you can go to the Piazza and buy in this yellow box “ticket seller” you need to tell them which one do you want. M1 or M2. For M1 you can also buy ticket from the self-service ticket machine that looks like a box. There are 2 kinds (the one that accept only cash and the one that accept only card). 

If you want to store your bag, you can do it here. This one located in Garibaldi (Across the road, downstairs)

The M1 ticket looks like this: 

And the M2 ticket looks like this:

Before boarding you need to validate the ticket. The ticket valid 90/140 minutes after you validate the ticket. Remember changing lines mean changing tickets! You can also take funicular to certain museum/attractions, this map might be useful:

Going to Pompeii + Other Attraction

From Naples to Pompeii there is train that will take 50 minutes. You can buy the ticket online or in the ticket machine. In the machine there were 2 thing “Pompei” and “Pompeii”, this is very confusing so we asked the information about which one and they help us to buy the ticket. So maybe maybe online is easier.

From naples to Pompeii cost only 2.8€ and the train is super nice with the coast line as the view during your journey. The Pompeii ticket enterance is 16 Euro.

Remember that no one sell water inside pompeii so better go to the nearest Carrefour before walking inside. It is super hot so bring your shade and sunscreen + comfortable shoes. You will need 3-4 hours to explore the whole complex. You can buy the ticket beforehand or on the site.  

Other attraction we enter is "Napoli Aquarium" it is small but I like it, it cost 6 Euro. The other one we enjoy like the pier, the beach, etc its all free. 

What to eat in Naples

For those “Local specialties” hunter you might hate me and my friend because we basically eat what is available, halal and we like it. (We actually not really care about specialties, well we tried some stuff but it wasn’t priority). So you might want to look somewhere else about local food in Naples. Naples is food heaven for people because they have so many different stuff. 

We tried the famous fried stuff: Fried pizza that looks like fried bread with ketchup that is very Indonesian , fried fish and fried mozzarella which is not bad. Well it’s actually good.

Pescheria Azzura which very famous

We tried Sfogliatella and Baba and Sfogliatella is legit very good, we eat that for breakfast for 2 days straight. I tried the other pastries like their cornetto with cream and its super good, it’s better than the one in Novara because its crispy but not flaky if you know what I mean. Each of passtry cost 2 Euro and cappuccino also 2 Euro without table fee. We shared one pastry each days, so we spend 5 Euro in the morning.

We tried the local lemon bibite, which is so good. This is the best lemon carbonation drink that I ever had in my life and it turns out they use the real different lemon and orange extract. This one is very recommended. 

My friend try the local juice/smoothie, we also bought some milkshakes which is I don’t know where to find in Novara which is very very good. You need to also try they sell some “cold coffee/chocolate drinks” which is very rare in the north at least in Piemonte.

Anyway in the first day we eat crispy halal chicken in Indian restaurant and the chicken is so good + they are affordable (crying). We also bought samosa the vegies one and the chicken one. The guy is so nice because he ran for me that left hand sanitizer on the restaurant.. I can’t thankful enough so if you go to Naples and craved for crispy chicken or Indian food you can always go to this restaurant. 

We only eat late lunch or dinner, for the chicken each package is 6Euro (Fries + chicken + cola), we try more stuff but we just spend on average 8Euro or less for each meal for each of us. 

Naples pro Tip

1) Dont expect people will speak English don't be surprised, on one breakfast the guy ask me something which I didnt understand at all but I know he ask me do I want to eat there. So I am just blurting Italian words I know, it helps. every time.

 

2) The bar guy said never leave your phone on the desk.

3) People might clean your table before you leave, or speak without expression but it doesn't mean they were mean. You know how people living by the sea ... they are different, yess.. and that's how they are.

4) Mind your life while crossing. No one will stop for you (I think this one in common for the place with heavy traffic jam), the trick is always cross with locals.

So How Much Naples Trip cost? 

1) Flight back-forth from Milan : 18 Euro

2) Hotel : 17 Euro/night

3) Food : 5 Euro (Cappuccino + Pastry), 8-9Euro (Meal)

4) Attraction tickets : 16 Euro-6 Euro

5) Transportation ticket : 5Euro (airport transfer) to 1.3 Euro (Metro)

I spend less than 100 Euro for the whole trip. This trip is leisure trip so we didnt think to save money (we didnt cook, we drink cola everyday LOL and buy sweet drink when we want), so I think less than 100 Euro is good enough with total spending around 30 Euro/day including accommodation. If you want to spend less, you actually can! Naples is very affordable for holiday.