Gulf of La Spezia

The "Bay of Poets" — Byron, Shelley, and Keats all lived along its shores

The Gulf of La Spezia is the broad bay that Lerici faces — about 8 km across and sheltered enough to feel more like a lake than an open sea on calm days. The water is clear, the depths are moderate, and the combination of the surrounding hills and the naval presence at La Spezia gives the gulf a singular character: at once picturesque and industrial.

Boat trips across the gulf are the best way to take it in. Lerici's harbour runs ferries and private boats to La Spezia, Portovenere, and the Cinque Terre — all easily done as day trips. The light on the water in the late afternoon, with Portovenere's promontory visible to the west, is one of those views that explains why the Romantics were so taken with this coast.

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A story
Byron swam across the Gulf of La Spezia in 1821 on a wager — some 7 km — then sat down to eat a large dinner. He was already known to be an exceptionally strong swimmer (he had crossed the Hellespont in 1810), but the gulf crossing impressed even his companions. The name "Bay of Poets" came later, a 20th-century coinage, though the literary associations were genuine: Shelley drowned here in 1822, and Lerici became something of a pilgrimage point for the Romantic generation.

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