The Kolding Caffe in central Zagreb is located in a courtyard that has been covered with translucent plastic relatively recently. Glass must have been too expensive at the time. When one enters the place from the street and passes through a long, dark archway, one is surprised by a huge picture of a small port that covers the back wall of the courtyard. At first one thinks it is a picture of an Istrian town, but one quickly realizes the architecture is not of Venetian origin. In fact, it is Portofino in Liguria not far from Genoa, which I visited only once in the early Nineties. The fishing village has turned into a tourist attraction. The transformation must have started about a century ago. Its name, Portofin in Ligurian, comes from the Roman Portus Delphini for the dolphins that used to inhabit the sea around it. That means the area must have been rich in fish, as well. The picture was taken in the summer, when the place was crowded with tourists. The architecture around the port strikes one as rather opulent, but a careful look reveals that all the architectural detail is painted on the façades. Stone pillars, architraves, panels, and moldings are all painted. Make-believe opulence, in short. Not having the means to appoint their buildings to their aspirations, the inhabitants of Portofino resorted to painting. I am not sure why this picture was chosen for the Kolding Caffe, but it fits the Croatian capital perfectly. Appearances, appearances. Zagreb in a nutshell.