Port of the Dolphins

This is the classic view of Portofino, the picturesque little tourist trap on the Ligurian Coast of Italy. The theory is–having come down to us from the Roman author Pliny the Elder,who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, when it also destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum–that the city was originally known as Portus Delphini because of the prominence of those playful cetaceans in its azure waters in ancient times. The dolphins, alas, have been replaced by the streamlined yachts of the super-rich.