Portovenere

Portovenere is not one of the Cinque Terre, but it belongs on the same water: a medieval harbour at the mouth of the Gulf of Poets, where legend has Byron setting off on his swim across the gulf to visit Shelley in Lerici, and the coast opens to the islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto.

From the boat you see the striped black-and-white church of San Pietro — Gothic walls standing where a temple of Venus gave the port its name — and the Doria castle above the tall painted houses. On a private day it is the natural long turn south: the Cinque Terre, then this final chapter of stone and light.

The headland and the islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto make up the Portovenere Regional Natural Park, and its finest corners open only to the sea: Byron’s Grotto lies in the cove right below the church, and Palmaria’s Blue Grotto can be reached by boat alone. The narrow strait between the headland and Palmaria — Le Bocche — is the passage every boat takes, and the finest hundred metres of this coast.