Saturday 9 Nov – Sunday 10 Nov 2019

Our host Gianna has recommended visits to Portovenere and Lerici so we are keen to explore both.

Porto Venere is a village on the Ligurian coast of northwestern Italy. It’s known for Porto Venere Regional Natural Park, a protected area with trails and dive sites. The park encompasses Palmaria Island, dotted with beaches and caves. The Gothic-style Church of St. Peter sits atop a rocky headland. Nearby is the centuries-old Castello Doria, an imposing clifftop fortress with views of the Gulf of Poets.

So named as this region was popular with poets, Shelley drowned at Lerici, Byron swam between Porto Venere and Lerici. Before them, other poets, Dante and Petrarch lover the gulf also.

We walk around the harbour admiring the pretty town and the views across the bay to Lerici before heading up to explore St. Peters.

Apparently Lord (and poet) Byron was a keen swimmer and he swam from Porto Venere to Lerici often! We estimated this to be about 10km’s so a pretty sound effort!

After St. Peter’s we headed up the hill to view the church of San Lorenzo and Castello Doria.

After another lovely day exploring we head home and later that night we get thunderstorms and lots of rain.

The next day as we are about to leave I spy this street art near our building. Could this be a Banksy style version of Klimt’s kiss perhaps?

Today we drive in the opposite direction from Portovenere to Lerici.

Lerici is a town and comune in the province of La Spezia in Liguria, part of the Italian Riviera. It is situated on the coast of the Gulf of La Spezia, 8 kilometres southeast of La Spezia. It is known as the place where the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned.

After we leave Lerici Rob decided to drive to the end of the point. Ponta Bianca. The road quickly becomes very high, winding with lots of signs saying don’t go off the edge! The drop off is very steep and at times the only barrier is olive trees! Very hairy drive indeed!

Ponta Bianca

La Spezia is a great spot to visit. It has so many interesting places very close by including the Cinque Terre and Italian Riviera and is also ideal and not far from quite a few other places like Pisa and Florence. I loved this location.

Tomorrow we head North to our last stop in Italy before touring on towards Germany, to the province of South Tryol. We think there may be snow too so it’s an exciting prospect!