The Gulf of La Spezia (Italian: ''Golfo della Spezia'' or ''Golfo dei poeti'') is a body of water on the north-western coast of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and part of the northern

Tyrrhenian Sea The Tyrrhenian Sea (; it, Mar Tirreno , french: Mer Tyrrhénienne , sc, Mare Tirrenu, co, Mari Tirrenu, scn, Mari Tirrenu, nap, Mare Tirreno) is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenian pe ...

, specifically of

Ligurian Sea The Ligurian Sea ( it, Mar Ligure; french: Mer Ligurienne; lij, Mâ Ligure) is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea. It lies between the Italian Riviera (Liguria) and the island of Corsica. The sea is thought to have been named after the ancient L ...

. It measures some 4.5 (length) by 3-3.5 (width) kilometers. The gulf is named for the Italian city of

La Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest city ...

, located at its middle point, which is also the main military and cargo port in the gulf, including several arsenals of the Italian

Marina Militare "Fatherland and Honour" , patron = , colors = , colors_label = , march = ( is the return of soldiers to their barrack, or sailors to their ship after a ...

. At the gulf extremities are the two tourist resorts of

Lerici Lerici ( lij, Lerxi, locally ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of La Spezia in Liguria (northern Italy), part of the Italian Riviera. It is situated on the coast of the Gulf of La Spezia, southeast of La Spezia. It is known as the place ...

(eastern) and

Porto Venere Porto Venere (; until 1991 ''Portovenere''; lij, Pòrtivene) is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) located on the Ligurian coast of Italy in the province of La Spezia. It comprises the three villages of Fezzano, Le Grazie and Porto Venere, and ...

(western). Islands in the gulf include Palmaria, Tino and

Tinetto Tinetto is an Italian island situated in the Gulf of La Spezia, in the eastern part of the Ligurian Sea. It is part of an archipelago of three closely spaced islands jutting out south from the mainland at Portovenere. In 1997, the archipelago, tog ...

. The

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

poet and dramatist

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

drowned in the Gulf in 1822 when the sailing boat he was on, the ''Don Juan'', sank due to a severe storm. A copy of poems by fellow British Romantic writer

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...

was found in his pocket when his body was recovered from the Gulf.Carey, pg 123

References

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External links

* Gulfs of Italy Gulfs of the Mediterranean

Gulf of La Spezia The Gulf of La Spezia (Italian: ''Golfo della Spezia'' or ''Golfo dei poeti'') is a body of water on the north-western coast of Italy and part of the northern Tyrrhenian Sea, specifically of Ligurian Sea. It measures some 4.5 (length) by 3-3.5 (wi ...

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