Portovenere is a small, quaint village in the La Spezia province of Liguria, on the Riviera di Levante that gently arches towards Tuscany. Once a fishermen’s hamlet, it is today a popular tourist destination, often bundled in day or weekend trips with nearby Cinque Terre. Portovenere is, however, special in its own right, so much so it became part of UNESCO’s World Heritage in 1997, along with its perhaps more famous neighbors.
Its name, originally Portus Veneris, comes from the ancient presence of a temple dedicated to Venus Erycina that once stood on top of the promontory today occupied by San Pietro church. The presence of a temple devoted to the goddess of beauty so near to the sea wasn’t surprising, as it was believed she had been born from sea foam.
But Portovenere is, for many, the village of poetry, and not solely because its beauty can inspire lyrical creativity, but because it’s always been loved by artists and writers. From Percy Shelley to Lord Byron, all the way to Eugenio Montale, this village — that faces the aptly named Golfo dei Poeti — was founded in Roman times, but developed especially in the Middle Ages, when Benedictine monks made of it their home. In the 11th century, it was in the hands of the Vezzano family, but soon became part of the Republic of Genoa, as attested by the construction of a castle in 1113, just beside the already existing Church of San Pietro.
Always in the 12th century, the other village church, that of San Lorenzo as well as part of the village itself were also built. Thanks to its position, Portovenere became particularly important as a military outpost during the war between Genoa and Pisa to control the Tyrrhenian Sea. In 1494, it was attacked by the Aragonese, but Genoa rebuilt its fortifications, naming them after important saints, Saint Francis and Saint Ambrose.
When Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Northern Italy, at the very end of the 18th century, Portovenere became part of the Dipartimento del Golfo di Venere.
Portovenere’s magic and connection with art began earlier than the times of Byron and Shelley: here, in the 15th century, Simonetta Vespucci was born. Her name may say nothing to you, but you are likely to be very familiar with her features, as she was Sandro Botticelli’s muse. And because of the connection between the village and the goddess Venus, many believe that Botticelli was inspired by the sea in front of Portovenere when it came to painting his famous “Birth of Venus.”
Eugenio Montale celebrated Portovenere in an eponymous poem, in which the village becomes a timeless place, where land and sea merge into one another, while the line between myth and reality, past and future, poetry and life disappear:
There — comes Triton
from the waves that lap
the threshold of a Christian
temple, and every near hour
is ancient. Every doubt
takes you by hand
as if by a young girl friend.
There — no one’s eyes
nor ears are bent on self.
Here — you are at the origins
and deciding is foolish:
re-begin later to assume a nature.
Before Nobel Prize Montale, other poets loved Portovenere, George Byron, and Percy Shelley — along with his famous wife Mary, author of Frankenstein — in primis. For them, well-to-do artists coming from the British high bourgeoisie, the Italian Riviera was part of the Grand Tour that brought so many of their generation to the continent in search of inspiration. But the Riviera di Levante is perhaps the most precious to them, along with Nice and her Côte d’Azur, their presence still felt and sensed through buildings, street names, and atmosphere in many villages in these areas.
While in Portovenere, it’s easy to understand why it attracted artists so much. Besides the breathtaking beauty of its sea and landscape, the village itself is dreamy, with its medieval churches and the Doria Castle, but especially with its narrow alleys and colorful homes along the seaside, so typical of Liguria. It’s easy to imagine the melancholic, troubled, romantic Byron walking along its streets at dusk or intently observing the horizon melting into the sea from the promontory. The connection between the British poet and war hero and Portovenere is found also in a special place named after him, the grotta di Byron, Byron’s grotto. Officially known as Cala dell’Arpaia, it is believed Byron would come here to find inspiration for his poetry, when so inclined.
From its location to its name, from its connection to the goddess of beauty and love, all the way to Botticelli’s muse and to the most gifted quills of the past 300 years, Portovenere should be considered more than a tourist destination: it’s a place of quiet and serenity, of delicate beauty where connecting with nature is simple and seeing beyond the veil of reality possible, if we only take the time to sit down and look.
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