As this bay is officially called, almost no one already remembers. But then many are well aware of his “folk-tourist” name-the bay of poets. It is located in northern Italy in the Ligurian Sea. And he received his name in honor of two great English romantic poets: Byron and Shelley, who at the beginning of the 19th century loved to spend time in these places.
Any local will tell you a story about how Byron swam this bay ten times a day. There and back. But his friend and drinking companion is the poet Shelley, who did not know how to swim, in the same bay and drowned, rising on a yacht in a storm. However, not only local residents know about this, but also any small representative of the tourism industry. Well, and only the lazy did not write about this in the guidebooks.
Now here, in August, like “Pushkin readings”, “Byron swims” are held, whose participants are sailing along the route of Lord Byron from Lerichi to Portovener, and some – and vice versa. And this is ten kilometers in one direction!
Despite the picturesque and romantic surroundings, there are few foreign tourists. Among the vacationers, Italians themselves prevail. Foreign guests usually flash at the speed of a boat rushing to the towns lying nearby. And in vain.
We invite you to ride along the shore of the Gulf of Poets and visit several interesting towns.
Tellaro
The most southern settlement of the Gulf is very similar to one of the town of Chinkwe-Terre. And those who have already visited Riomadzhore, Manarola, Vernac, Kornilier and Monterosso, unanimously say that it is more beautiful and comfortable than any of them. There, too, the central streets rest against the sea, but so that people lay right on these streets and sunbathed, this is possible only in Tilaro.
The hero of the main city legend is a giant octopus. In time immemorial, when the pirates approached Tylaro in the middle of the night, this octopus crawled to land, reached the tentacle to the bell tower, which is still in the same place, where it was on the shore before – and called the bell. Residents woke up and quickly organized a rebuff to enemies. Images of the mythical savior of the city are found in Tilaro everywhere – on the doors of houses, on planks with the names of the streets, on the signs of shops – but this does not prevent local restaurateurs from preparing delicious dishes from its brothers.
In the city itself, swimming is not very convenient, it is surrounded by rocky mounds-waves, but in its environs there are several public beaches. We especially recommend two beaches in the next town of Fyacherino: the emerald sea surrounded by picturesque rocks and large sand mixed with pebbles. The beaches are free, but for two sunbeds and an umbrella you need to pay 20 euros. However, you can just be located on the rocks or on the sand.
Lerichi
Lerichi, perhaps, is the most bourgeois of all towns of the Gulf of Poets. In a good sense of the word (if there is one, of course). It was here that Shelley and his wife Mary (by the way, the author of the famous novel “Frankenstein”) and Byron with his girlfriend and secretary Clermont (half -sister Mary). In the neighboring town of San Terenzo, the villa, which was shot by Shelley, was preserved.
Lerichi has a lot of sandy beaches and a well -established infrastructure, so the family wealthy audience from Milan, Florence, Pisa and Bologna mainly rest here. A medieval castle of Lerichi, built in the XIII century by Pisans, and later expanded by the Genoese, rises above the resort. It arranged a paleontological museum, and a tunnel under the fortress leads to a romantic restaurant with a terrace above the sea.
La spices
Disputes about how to call the city correctly – with the prefix “LA” or without, for more than one century has been conducted. As a result, La Spices are officially written, and the prefix is lowered in the everyday language. Approximately, as in the case of St. Petersburg. Etymology of the name is also lost in the fog of centuries, but it is known for certain that it has nothing to do with spices.
Shelley, called the spice “Blue City of Dreams and Love.” Today she, alas, is not as romantic as two hundred years ago. After all, the spice is the administrative center of the province, in addition, a large trading port and a naval base with many regime industrial enterprises and with all the ensuing consequences.
Despite this, in the city there is something to see: a cozy promenade, lined with palm trees along the sea, several interesting museums. For example, the Naval Museum, which is considered one of the best in the world, or the Museum of Amedeo Lei in the former Franciscan monastery with collections of medieval and renaissance art. But “The Best” and “Must See”, of course, is the medieval castle of St. George, from which the best views of the bay are opened. There is also a fairly interesting archaeological museum in the castle.
Portovener
This cute town consists of just one street. It goes parallel to the embankment bordered by multi -colored houses. You fall in love with a portyener right away. He is one of those classic coastal towns in which he subconsciously wants to spend old age. It is very comfortable to sit in restaurants by the sea, meeting and watching tourist ferries. True, it is even more comfortable, probably not to sit in a restaurant, but on your personal balcony or in a room behind a slightly ajar shutters, which some do.
Portovener, as mentioned above, was the end point of the “floating” route of Byron, so there are many “Byron” places. First of all, this is the grotto of Byron, in which, according to legend, the poet loved to read his poems out loud, shouting a roar of storms. As well as the Church of St. Peter, which Byron considered the most romantic building in the world. And what, in what, and in romance the lord understood. The church with a pointed turret, making it similar to a knightly castle, stands on a long cape, on the shore of a narrow strait between the portyener and the neighboring island of Palmaria, where from time to time small boats take lovers of secluded relaxation.
However, the portpeener was created not only for Dolce Farniente – nothing sweet. His surroundings are an ideal place for hiking, surrounded by wild rocks and sheer cliffs. From the Portovener you can climb to the castle of the Doria family and from there to observe the poets lying far below below. Or go on foot towards Chinkwe-Terre to look at Pentilee from an unusual angle.
How to get to the bay of poets and move along it
The nearest airports are in Pisa and Genoa. From both cities to La spices about one hundred kilometers, which are best driven by train. From La spices to Portovener, San Terenzo, Lerichi and Telero are local buses (2.5 euros each).
The ferry from Lerichi to Portovener-8 euros in one side, 13 euros, back and round. The ferry from spices to Portovener is 6 and 10 euros, respectively. Pales bay the ferries cross about forty minutes in about forty minutes. The last ferries on the port of the spices and Lerich leave at three in the afternoon. The opposite is about six in the evening.
These same ferries from Portpeener continue their way along the Chinkwe-Terre, with a call in all five towns. A ticket for the whole day, with the ability to go ashore anywhere, and then continue your route from Lerichi costs 35 euros, from a spice – 30.
Convenient booking online hotels – using OneTwotrip.
Text and photo: Dmitry Rzhannikov
