This Classic Dolce Vita Hotel in Portofino Has Reopened With a Very 'Splendido' Makeover
No matter where you're coming from, Portofino isn't the easiest spot to reach. This crown jewel of the Italian Riviera—and corner of the world long beloved by the international jet set—sits the furthest tip of a small peninsula that juts out into the Mediterranean, requiring a drive along hair-raising roads, winding their way along the dramatic cliffs and bays that run from Genoa in one direction, or the north of Tuscany in the other. But once you arrive, you quickly understand why people make the effort. Portofino is Italy at its breeziest and most beautiful: a picture-postcard jumble of colorful buildings clustered around an impossibly picturesque harbor, with church spires and lush forests above and the shimmering Ligurian Sea beyond.
You'll need to head up one of the nearby hills, however, to discover the Italian Riviera's real crown jewel: Splendido, A Belmond Hotel. Once an abandoned Benedictine monastery, the property was completely overhauled in the 19th century to become the eye-poppingly lavish summer home of an Italian baron; in 1902, it opened its doors as a hotel for the first time, quickly becoming a hot spot for some of the world's most glittering stars. And when I say glittering, I mean glittering: The list of former guests includes everyone from the Duke of Windsor to Winston Churchill, Grace Kelly to Madonna; the hotel was even one of the few constants in Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's turbulent romance, with Burton proposing with an enormous Bulgari rock on one of its famous wisteria-clad terraces. (And if you needed further proof the hotel has lost none of its shine, more recent overnighters include the likes of Dua Lipa—that's a woman who knows how to holiday.)
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