The so called Gulf of the poets is a stretch of sea that belongs to Liguria and ends the natural stretch of the coast. Here, the coastal landscape changes, we can't see anymore the endless beaches of Versilia, but sheer cliffs which drop straight into the sea, as in the nearby Cinque Terre and a multitude of small islands in the horizon.
This corner of paradise was the favourite destination of English poets and, easy to imagine, it owes its name to its habitual visitors: among the others, the famous poets Byron and Shelley, the latter having visited Lerici.
Portovenere, easily reachable by boat from Lerici, is a really pictoresque, tiny port, standing in a natural cove. Opposite this well known port, there is Palmaria island, a very renowned place for the ruined fortifications of the dating back to the period of the Malaspina family and for its unusual natural landscape, very wooded and with numerous caves.