Lerici, Coastal town in La Spezia Province, Italy
Lerici is a commune on the eastern coast of the Gulf of La Spezia in Liguria, with a harbor and bathing beaches below a clifftop fortress. The seafront promenade runs past colored houses, and narrow lanes climb toward the higher castle that watches over the water.
The town changed hands several times between Genoa and Pisa during the Middle Ages until it became permanently Genoese in 1479. The fortress of San Giorgio dates from 1152 and secured the harbor for centuries against pirates and invaders.
The name Gulf of Poets refers to the nineteenth-century writers who stayed along these shores and wrote about the landscape. Today, visitors walk the same waterfront and see the same views that once inspired verse.
Ferry connections from the harbor allow day trips to the Cinque Terre villages and Porto Venere, so you can explore the coast from the water. The old town sits on a slope, so bring comfortable shoes for steep stairs and cobblestones.
The castle houses a paleontology museum displaying fossils of dinosaurs and prehistoric sea creatures found in the surrounding area. The collection shows that this coast was once home to reptiles and shallow warm seas.
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