Port of Venus-Portovenere is sometimes considered the 6th Cinque Terre town on the Ligurian Coast.  This portal is part of the castle wall, and gives you a glimpse of the Bay of Poets.  Lord Byron and Shelley once lived and wrote here.

Portovenere is a peninsula and as you float by on the ferry, the ruins of the castle and church appear on the promontory. Really breathtaking. Portovenere is the peninsula that juts out as you enter the Golf of Poets. If you continue by boat you arrive at the port town of La Spezia and the smaller but beautiful Lerici. If you hopped a train from Monterosso you would reach La Spezia in about 30 minutes.

I highly recommend taking the one hour ferry ride from Monterosso (the western most Cinque Terre village) to Portovenere. I doubt that you would find a more beautiful other-worldly journey anywhere. I’m so glad we didn’t take the train and then the bus to Portovenere. Thanks to my friends, Linda and Tom, and Fred for suggesting ferry rides in Liguria more than train rides (although we took plenty of train trips too.)

Photos: Scene of Port of Venus-Portovenere from the ferry. Ciao from Lenora with the castle in background at Portovenere.

The photo of the food counter is a display of olives, vegetables, olive oil, lemoncello and more local products. I bought artichoke hearts (carciofi) that melted in my mouth.

Every opening in the castle wall revealed breathtaking scenes of fascinating rock formations, ocean, sky and white albatross sailing high in the sky. Photo of Nancy and I at one of the portals left remaining from the ancient castle on the top of the mountain. The medieval village was an impregnable fortress belonging to Genoa. In the rocky background you can see the crags leaning towards the rocky Cinque Terre.

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