Another Seaside paradise

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Stopped again for a thankful few days: in La Spezia. Whilst we love the location of our accommodation we are not so enamoured with the crazy traffic and busyness of these 'small' cities by local standards. After taking some beautiful seaside photos of la spezia this morning, we escaped to Portovenere, the first of the cinque Terre national park towns but not one of the famous five. Of course the locals say it is the best: tomorrow we will find out if they are right or not.

We are staying in a 3 century old family home: sadly though our room is in a refurbished apartment on the ground floor, but it is positioned on the hills overlooking la spezia and the views are magnificent.

The town of Portovenere was magnificent, with a beautiful church: Chiasma San Pietro perched on the rugged end of the peninsula on which the town is located. We sat in the grotto by the sea where Lord Byron swam against all odds from Portovenere to Lerici: a bloody good swim by any standards. Keats also used this town as a retreat for his writing. The bay around La Spezia is called Poets Bay as Percy Shelley, Byron and Keats all stayed here.

Lunch was a beautiful seafood pizza to share (No photo as it was served in two halves and eaten too quickly!)

After this we ventured to Sarzana for coffee in an ancient coffee house named 'Gemmi'. Then battled the traffic again to find a supermarket (there are never any car parks available) and purchased beautiful fresh local salmon to cook for dinner.

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Photos

Panorama our view of La Spezia
Beautiful! Today is bathed in bright sunshine and all is visible!

Boats in harbour
As well as a fishing village and port, this has a large military sector

Portovenere
Palazzata a mare

Map of peninsula
To help visualise the layout

Portovenere: Old part of church
Right on the edge of the cliffs at the end of the peninsula

Inside San Pietro
Very unusual striped decoration of marble alternating with dark limestone : old Roma part of church

St James statue
So many of the features in this town are in bronze

Porta Portovenere
The gate into the old city Porta del Borgo

Sarzana: Church marble carvings
Stunning

Such amazing churches
Terrific acoustics

Comments

[Lee]

Italy
Holiday sounds devine. Jarli has gone on his own and is in Venice at carnival. He is loving it. He will ll be leaving from Rome in a few days. Loving getting updates from different parts of Italy!

[Michanna]

Venice
Yes there are amazing places to see. Glad jarli is loving Venice. Xx