The Novel That Defined Portofino

There are some places so beautiful you can’t quite believe they are real. To be there is like being in a dream, bathed in a warm golden light where the harsh realities of life cannot intrude. The Ligurian fishing village of Portofino is one such place; a tiny theatre set in a natural bay dotted with jaunty pink houses and a yellow church. It is where, if you lie back and think of Italy, your mind will transport you, accompanied by the sound of chiming bells and the scent of flowering jasmine. 

It’s remarkable to think that this earthly paradise was only “discovered” by outsiders 100 years ago, largely thanks to Elizabeth von Arnim, a novelist who decamped there for a month in the 1920s after two failed marriages. There had, of course, been visitors before her, but there was no road to Portofino until 1890 – the only way to arrive being by foot or by boat. So when she published a novel in 1922 based on her month there, The Enchanted April, it catapulted Portofino into the forefront of every dreamer’s mind. 

The premise of the book is simple. Four women who are tired of London rent an Italian castle for the month of April. Each has her own problems, but each transforms, re-energised by the beauty of San Salvatore, the castle, and its setting (renamed Castagneto). Back then, Portofino was not yet the glamorous playground it would become in the 1950s and 1960s, with the arrival of Rex Harrison and Elizabeth Taylor. It was still occupied chiefly by fishermen and farmers, with only a few adventurous tourists making the detour along the new road, which snakes along the water from Santa Margherita Ligure, where the railway line ends.

Von Arnim was one such visitor. Born in Australia in 1866 but educated in England and Switzerland, by 1920 she was in her 50s and had raised five children. She had accomplished two decades of literary success, her books admired worldwide for their wit and ebullience.

None more so than The Enchanted April, in which she captures the essence of Portofino as it was, but also as it still is today. As Lotty Wilkins, the book’s chief protagonist, muses: “Far out in the bay a cluster of motionless fishing boats hovered like a flock of white birds on the tranquil sea. How beautiful, how beautiful. Not to have died before this… to have been allowed to see, breathe, feel this… It was as though she could hardly stay inside herself, it was as though she were too small to hold so much joy, it was as though she were washed through with light. And how astonishing to feel this sheer bliss.”

In 1935, perhaps moved by von Arnim’s words, the local government decreed that Portofino may never change. And so it remains today, as perfect now as it was when discovered by von Arnim. And not just in April, but in every month of the year – the unchanging, enchanted Portofino.