Portofino's harbour is priced for yachts, but the peninsula wrapped around it is a free regional park. Three days of signed trails, public pebble coves, Friday markets in Santa Margherita and focaccia sold by weight — eating and sleeping where the 400 residents do.
Portofino's Romanesque parish church sits two minutes above the harbour on Via Roma and almost nobody climbs to it. Entry is free, doors usually open 08:00–18:00, and the forecourt has a black-and-white pebble mosaic and a shaded bench.
The village's only free beach is a 30-metre pebble strip tucked beneath Castello Brown, reached by steps off Via Castello. No sunbeds, no bar, no fee — bring your own water. It fills up by noon in July, but before then it is often empty.
The Parco Naturale trail leaves from above Via Olmi behind the cemetery and climbs through holm oak to Base 0 and the Pietre Strette junction. Waymarked, free to walk, and roughly two hours each way — or turn back at the first sea window.
The emerald bay between Portofino and Santa Margherita is mostly private clubs charging €40 and up for two loungers, but two marked spiaggia libera strips at either end cost nothing. The bus stops on the road above and steps drop to the pebbles.
Santa Margherita's Friday morning market runs roughly 08:00–13:00 along Corso Matteotti and the side streets, with Ligurian peaches, taggiasca olives, cheese and slabs of focaccia sold by the kilo — the cheapest food anywhere on this peninsula.
A wood-panelled grocery hall trading in Santa Margherita since 1900, stacked with Ligurian olive oil, anchovies, salumi and cheese. Have a picnic assembled at the counter for a few euros and carry it up to the free public park at Villa Durazzo.
On Camogli's seafront, Revello has sold focaccia col formaggio since the 1960s — stracchino melted between two paper-thin sheets, cut by weight and eaten standing at the counter. The camogliese almond pastry is the other reason for the queue.
The stone pier on the harbour's western arm is public and free to sit on, facing exactly the coloured facades that cost €25 a spritz from the terrace tables behind it. Bring a bottle bought in Santa Margherita and watch the tenders come in.
The 782 bus to Santa Margherita plus an ATP bus up to Ruta puts you at 450 metres for a few euros. From Portofino Vetta a signed track runs out to the Semaforo Nuovo, a former naval signal station looking down the whole Golfo del Tigullio.
The terrace in front of the church at San Rocco, 220 metres above Camogli, is a free balcony over Punta Chiappa and the gulf. Panificio Maccarini beside it sells focaccia and the hard local galletta biscuit for a couple of euros.
From San Rocco the inland Pietre Strette route drops through the park to San Fruttuoso in about 1h45 — free, shaded, and much safer than the chained Batterie path. The bay and its pebble beach cost nothing; the abbey charges separately.
The paved seafront path leaves Santa Margherita and curls past Punta Pedale and the Cervara headland to Paraggi on a ledge just above the water. An hour of peninsula coastline that costs nothing and empties out at golden hour.