Portovenere, Ligure, Italy - 23 September 2007

We decided to skip Florence and spend the day at Portovenerre. As much as it would be nice to see Florence, it will have to wait until the next trip.

As usual I have ‘borrowed’ the text as time is limited (http://goitaly.about.com/od/portovenere/p/portovenere.htm)…

Portovenere Overview: Portovenere is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Portovenere's harbor is lined with brightly colored houses and narrow medieval streets lead up the hill to a castle. The main street of Portovenere, lined with shops, is entered through Portovenere's ancient city gate. There is a picturesque church on the promontory, once the site of a temple to Venus (Venere in Italian) from which Portovenere gets its name. Nearby is Byron's Cave in a rocky area leading to the sea where the poet Byron used to swim.
Portovenere Location: Portovenere sits on a rocky peninsula on the Gulf of Poets, an area in the Gulf of La Spezia once popular with writers such as Byron, Shelley and DH Lawrence. Portovenere is southeast of the Cinque Terre at the end of the Italian Riviera, in the region of Liguria.

We finished the day with a boat tour around the bay and three islands...