There is something at the heart of Lerici that works on my imagination to create magic as interesting things happened in its world of sand and sea, harbor and castles, alleys and pastel-colored houses. All can be read through the lens of literature.

Many great English-speaking literati have been inspired by the town at the southernmost end of the Italian Riviera. They found or lost themselves on the Lerici coast, on the Gulf of La Spezia, also known as the Gulf of Poets, where Lord Byron swam the bay and Shelley was later drowned. Other foreign writers also favored this locale, its landscapes and surroundings, for a long time.