Portofino

Portofino needs 1 day: touring the tiny harbor ringed by colorful houses and luxury yachts on one, and climbing to Castello Brown, a 16th-century fortress with panoramic gulf views, on the other. April-June and September-October are best. It's one of Italy's most expensive towns, with a tiny fraction of the Riviera's visitors. Its small bay, just a handful of colorful fishermen's houses, became a refuge for Hollywood stars and European aristocracy in the 1950s, and today it remains synonymous worldwide with discreet luxury, with some of Europe's highest real estate prices per square meter.