The Golfo della Spezia (the Gulf of La Spezia, renamed the Golfo dei Poeti, the Gulf of Poets, by the poet Sem Benelli in 1919 in recognition of its literary associations) is the bay between the naval city of La Spezia and the beginning of the Cinque Terre coast, sheltered from the north by the Apuan Alps and opening south toward Corsica. It is a bay of exceptional visual quality, the specific combination of the mountains dropping directly to the water, the small medieval villages on the clifftops (Lerici, Tellaro, San Terenzo), and the quality of light on the water that shifts between the blue-green of clear weather and the specific silver-gray of the Ligurian overcast, that attracted the British Romantic poets in the 1820s as the place that corresponded most closely to their aesthetic of sublime landscape combined with Italian cultural richness.
Percy Bysshe Shelley lived at Casa Magni in San Terenzo (on the north shore of the gulf, directly across from Lerici) in the spring and summer of 1822, the last months of his life. He drowned on July 8, 1822, returning by boat from Livorno in a sudden storm. His body washed ashore near Viareggio 10 days later and was cremated on the beach in the presence of Byron, Leigh Hunt, and Edward Trelawny. His ashes are in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome (see the Piramide Cestia guide). The specific Shelley-Lerici connection: Shelley wrote the poem "With a Guitar, to Jane" at Casa Magni in the weeks before his death, and the gulf outside the window of Casa Magni was the landscape of his final months.
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Lerici and the Gulf: What to See
Lerici: The Castle and the Village
Lerici village (the principal town on the southern shore of the gulf) is dominated by the Castello di Lerici (the 12th-century castle expanded by the Genoese and the Pisans in the 13th century, now housing the Museo Geopaleontologico di Lerici, the geological and paleontological museum of the Ligurian coast). The village beneath the castle: the specific Ligurian harbor town format, the fishing boats on the beach, the colored facades of the fishermen's houses on the waterfront (the liguria pastel tones, ochre, terracotta, pale green, gray-blue), and the caruggi (the narrow Genoese lanes) of the historic center. Boat hire from the Lerici harbor: the most practical way to access the small beaches (Fiascherino, Punta Bianca, the beaches below Tellaro) that aren't reachable by road.
Tellaro: The Octopus Bell Legend
Tellaro (4km south of Lerici on the coastal road, or 20 minutes by boat) is one of the most beautiful small villages in Liguria and in Italy, the specific Ligurian village that appears on the "most beautiful villages" lists without ever becoming crowded because the road access is narrow and the car parking is minimal. The village climbs a rocky promontory above the sea with the parish church of San Giorgio at the top. The legend: a giant octopus once rang the church bell to warn the village of a Saracen pirate attack, saving the community. The Tellaro octopus is now the village symbol.
Q&A: Lerici Gulf of Poets
How do I get to Lerici from the Cinque Terre?
By train: La Spezia Centrale (15 minutes from Riomaggiore by train) then bus or taxi to Lerici (bus ATC Liguria line 11, approximately 40 minutes). By boat: in summer (April-October), the Golfo dei Poeti boat service connects Lerici with Portovenere on the south shore and with the Cinque Terre villages by sea, the boat approach to the Gulf of Poets is the most beautiful way to arrive. By car: from La Spezia follow the SP331 south along the gulf. 20 minutes. Lerici is the natural base for exploring both the Cinque Terre (30 minutes by train) and the Gulf of Poets boat circuit.
