The Gulf of Poets by e-bike

Your tour of the Gulf of Poets by e-bike begins in La Spezia. From here you start pedaling towards Lerici, along the eastern side of the magnificent Gulf of Poets.

You then reach San Terenzo, a fishing village since the Middle Ages that, overlooking a vast beach, offers a multicoloured panorama on the unmistakable Ligurian houses. With its houses perched around the castle and its position above a rocky spur, it closes the small bay of Lerici. San Terenzo Castle is a fortification, probably built in the 15th century by the inhabitants of the small village themselves, in order to protect themselves from the incursions of Saracen pirates. In the past it was the favourite place of poets, writers, intellectuals and artists. The symbolic place is Casa Magni, where, in 1822, Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary, lived. In 1892, the Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin put on canvas the emotions transmitted by these coasts. In 1933, in a hotel a few steps from Casa Magni, Virginia Woolf spent a few days in these places, writing about them in her diary. Moreover, between Lerici and San Terenzo, there is Villa Marigola, which hosted illustrious characters.

Your tour in the Gulf of Poets by e-bike then continues towards Lerici, another beautiful village whose history dates back to the Etruscan period, when the strategic importance of this place as a natural port was intuited. In the Middle Ages, Lerici became an important commercial centre because of its outlets to the sea. Subsequently portrayed, described and admired by great artists of all ages, it has rightfully entered Italian and world culture. Dante Alighieri mentions it in the Purgatory, the poets of the Grand Tour including Byron, Shelley and his wife Mary and D.H. Lawrence, not only talked about it, but also stayed there.

From the Gulf of Lerici you can admire spectacular sunsets over Porto Venere, the Island of Palmaria and the Island of Tino. When mentioning Lerici, one thinks of the sea, so much so that the place has obtained the recognition of the Blue Flags, but also of nature, in fact, its territory is part of the Regional Natural Park of Montemarcello. The famous polygonal fortification, which dominates the rocky promontory of the gulf, is a giant that watches over and protects the landscape below; the Castle of Lerici, built starting from 1152, underwent numerous modifications by the Naval Republics of Genoa and Pisa, which disputed its ownership.

The tour of the Gulf of Poets by e-bike ends with the return to the starting point.