Liguria is an Italian Region located in the North-West of the peninsula. Its capital is Genoa. Washed by the sea, it borders on France in the west, in the north on Piedmont and Emilia Romagna, in the south-east on Tuscany.

The coastal area of Liguria to the west of Genoa is known as the Riviera di Ponente; to the east is the Riviera di Levante.

Liguria attracts many tourists for its natural and cultural beauties; among the most memorable of these, la Riviera dei fiori on the west coast, and on the east coast Portofino, le Cinque Terre and the "Poets' Gulf."

THE POETS' GULF

The deep bay of the southern extremity of the Riviera di Levante is known as The Poets' Gulf, because its considerable beauty has always attracted artists, poets and writers. In the course of centuries, the Gulf of Spezia (its geographical name) has been the physical and spiritual dwelling of famous people: Petrarca, Shelley, Byron, Signorini, Montale, Soldati and others.
Lerici and Portovenere, two of the most renowned villages visited by international tourists, lie on the extremities of the gulf.

LERICI
The town is still characterized by a medieval structure with the typical houses and narrow alleyways of the ancient borgo.
The castle, built in the XIII century, houses the Museum of Geo-Palaeontology.
The famous town of San Terenzo with its old castle washed by the sea, Tellaro, an ancient fishermen's borgo and the famous Fiascherino with its inlets alternating with charming little beaches surrounded by olive trees and maquis lie just ahead of Lerici.

PORTOVENERE
The promontory that encloses the Gulf of La Spezia in the west, dominated by the Romanesque Church of San Peter, is the oldest part of Portovenere, a typical Ligurian fishermen's borgo, with its houses along the coastline. In front of the borgo lies the island of Palmaria; further south the two islets of Tino and Tinetto emerge from the sea.
A few kilometres away, on the road to La Spezia., the remains of the Roman Villa delle Grazie can still be visited.

LA SPEZIA
The main city of its Province, La Spezia transformed from a late medieval fishermen's village into a modern-looking city in the second part of the nineteenth century, when the Maritime Military Arsenal was built.
The city's historic centre is dominated by Saint George's castle, which nowadays houses The Ubaldo Mazzini Museum, where you can see some 'stele' from the Lunigiana. In recent years La Spezia has become an important museum centre. Among the foremost are the Museum 'Amedeo Lia,' with famous collections of ancient and medieval art, the Museum of the Seal, the Ethnographic Museum, the Naval Museum, and the Centre of Modern Art.
It is worthwhile to visit the borgo of Tramonti, a little village surrounded by vineyards and suspended on the coast. Its terraces overhanging the sea afford the most spectacular landscape in all Liguria.