The harbourfront of Portovenere is defined by a row of tall, narrow medieval tower-houses painted in stripes of ochre, terracotta, and faded red. These are the Case Veneziane — the Venetian Houses — though the name is a misnomer: they were built not by Venetians but by Genoese settlers in the 12th and 13th centuries, who stacked their homes five and six storeys high to maximise space on the tight promontory. The name stuck because their painted facades and compressed verticality reminded later visitors of the palaces along the Grand Canal.
The towers served a dual purpose: domestic space at the front, defence at the back. The seaward walls are windowless at ground level, forming a continuous defensive screen against pirates and rival fleets. Today the ground floors are occupied by restaurants and cafes, and the upper windows, hung with washing or strung with lights, belong to the few hundred people who live here year-round. The best view of the row is from the water — on the ferry in from La Spezia, the painted facades and the black rock of the promontory behind them make one of the most photographed sights on the Ligurian coast.