PORTOFINO, ITALY

Portofino is an Italian fishing village and vacation resort famous for its picturesque harbour and historical association with celebrity and artistic visitors. It is a comune located in the Metropolitan City of Genoa on the Italian Riviera. The town is clustered around its small harbour, and is known for the colourfully painted buildings that line the shore.

According to Pliny the Elder, Portofino was founded by the Romans and named Portus Delphini, or Port of the Dolphin, because of the large number of dolphins that inhabited the Tigullian Gulf. The village is mentioned in a diploma from 986 by Adelaide of Italy, which assigned it to the nearby Abbey of San Fruttoso di Capodimonte.In 1171, together with the neighbouring Santa Margherita Ligure, it was included in Rapallo's commune jurisdiction. After 1229 it was part of the Republic of Genoa.

The town's natural harbour supported a fleet of fishing boats, but was somewhat too cramped to provide more than a temporary safe haven for the growing merchant marine of the Republic of Genoa. In 1409 Portofino was sold to the Republic of Florence by Charles VI of France, but when the latter was ousted from Genoa the Florentines gave it back. In the 15th century it was a fief of families such as the Fieschi, Spinola, Adorno, and Doria.In 1815 it became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia and, from 1861, of the unified Kingdom of Italy.

In the late 19th century, first British, then other Northern European aristocratic tourists began to visit Portofino, which they reached by horse and cart from Santa Margherita Ligure. Aubrey Herbert and Elizabeth von Arnim were amongst the more famous English people to make the area fashionable. Eventually more expatriates built expensive vacation houses, and by 1950 tourism had supplanted fishing as the town's chief industry, and the waterfront was a continuous ring of restaurants and cafés

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

STUDLEY PARK BOATHOUSE

Yarra Bend Park is a 260 hectare (642 acre) park in the Melbourne suburb of Kew. It is located 4 km northeast of Melbourne's CBD and is the largest area of natural bushland left in inner Melbourne. The most notable feature of the park is the Yarra River which flows for 12 km through it. The park hosts two golf courses, two historic boathouses, sheds and a number of cycle and walking trails. It receives approximately 1.5 million visitors per year.

Studley Park is named after settler John Hodgson's house, which in turn was named after a town in Yorkshire, England. Both Studley Park and Yarra Bend were held back from sale, the former for recreation, the latter for public institutions. Amalgamated in 1924 after the closure of Yarra Bend Asylum, they were connected by Kane's Bridge until it was destroyed by flooding. It was replaced by the present bridge in 1935.

In the 1860s boating and swimming became popular, reaching their peak in the interwar years. The Studley Park Boathouse, established as the Burn's Boathouse, has been in continuous use since 1863. The park's popularity waned mid-century as motor cars expanded leisure choices. Since the early 1980s revegetation and the construction of the Main Yarra Trail have led to a resurgence of popularity.

This post is part of the Scenic Weekends meme.

MIJAS, SPAIN

Mijas is a town and municipality in the province of Málaga, in Andalusia, southern Spain. It is a typically Andalusian white-washed village located at a mountain side about 450 m above mean sea level, in the heart of the Costa del Sol region. There are some local history museums and many souvenir shops, Mijas also has seven golf courses (four more are under construction) including La Cala Resort, the biggest golf resort in Spain.

The Town Square

Looking down towards the Costa del Sol and Torreblanca

Picturesque coaches...

...Or donkey taxi!

A 17th Century cave-cum-shrine which was excavated by a Carmelite monk between 1656 and 1682, on the side of the Epistolary, a sacristy made of irregular stonework has been adde. The Eastern front, also made in a similar manner and for the same purpose, has a doorway with a round arch and a small belfry gable

In a small irregular niche excavated at the head of the hermitage you´ll find the Virgen de la Peña, patron of Mijas 

One of the town's beautiful streets

The hotel we stayed at

Walking up the garden path to enjoy...

...the night in the gardens of Spain with a magnificent view and the smell of roses and Spanish jasmine

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme