Lerici & Portovenere
On the 11th July, we headed the short distance across the Gulf of La Spezia, to Lerici, a pretty little town, one that could have been the 6th Terre! Thankfully for us, its geography and it being a little off the beaten tourist path with no train station, Lerici was not suffering from over-tourism, although for how long it will remain like that is anyones guess!
There is no big marina or port here, in fact most boats were secured in a rather hectic buoy field, one we had to navigate to get ashore, having happily dropped our pick just outside.
Lerici
Late in the afternoon, we went ashore to explore this very pretty town.
We even came across this rather long and somewhat elaborate tunnel for pedestrians only, that joined the two sides of the town, and had a giggle at the kids who loved to whoop and scream to hear their own voices bounce back to them!
The town and atmosphere was so lovely we decided to stay out for dinner, hoping the torch on our mobile would be sufficient to help us re-navigate through the buoy field later. A fab dinner with some vino of course was had in an old alleyway, followed by inevitable Fondente ice-cream, well we have to make to the most of it before we leave Italy!
A little pickled, we did surprising manage to make our way back to Seaclusion without incident, although the bay was a little rolly through the night, not our best night’s sleep but not bad enough to count as one of the 3 Rolly Polly nights we allow ourselves during a season!
The following morning we popped back across the Gulf of La Spezia, dropped our anchor again to visit the little medieval town of Portovenere, which despite its status as a UNESCO World Heritage site it is still under the radar of millions of international visitors flocking to Cinque Terre, still busy but not unbearably so!
Portovenere
For the evening, we moved Seaclusion a little further away from the town to what we hoped would be a better anchorage from a sea and wind perspective for the night, which afforded us great views of the town and the fort as the sun started to set. And yes, it was a better night!!!
The next morning we had some wind, even in the right direction, to enable us to set sail further down the Italian coast to Livorno.
13th July 2024.
