The islands of Liguria
Flower Riviera, Palm Riviera
Wild, uninhabited, unreachable, or small Edens: the Ligurian islands are a world apart. There are only 5 (+ 1, perhaps?) and some of them you can only admire from the shore or from the sea. But they still encapsulate so many emotions and stories: those of people who still dream of landing there and the lives of those who, like little Robinsons, managed to live there.
The stages
Gallinara IslandBergeggi Island
Palmaria Island
Tino Island
Tinetto Island
The Scola Tower
Gallinara Island
Gallinara Island
Gallinara Island, with its typical snail shape (which, depending on the angle, can resemble a turtle), is the protagonist of the panorama of Alassio and Albenga. It is roughly 1.5 km from the coast and, with its 11 hectares of surface area, is the result of a sea level rise during the Quaternary period. However, in its more recent history, it was above all a refuge for popes and hermits, such as San Benedetto Revelli, San Martino di Tours and of Pope Alexander III. Its name recalls the hens that once inhabited it in large numbers, perhaps brought by Colombian or Benedictine monks, although Roman historians such as Cato, Varro and Lucius Columella already mention this fact. It is as beautiful as it is mysterious: for years, since oligarchs and private holding companies have been fighting over its ownership, it has not been possible to access it and between its extremes, "Sciusciau” point (from the winds that blow there) and Falconara Point, the “Gallinara Island Regional Nature Reserve” can be found where over 280 different and rare botanical species live and unique animals such as the large yellow-legged gull take refuge. We recommend you approach from the sea: the Blue Grotto is nestled between the two points where the sun, through a play of refractions, colors the water of the cave turquoise. In front of Falconara Point at a depth of 18 m, a statue of Christ the Redeemer, entirely made of bronze and 275 cm high, was placed on the seabed in 1998.I f you want to discover more about the beauty of Gallinara, take part in Full steam ahead: Straight to the Island and beyond, the event scheduled for 14 June, a "natural pool" marked by buoys, which will allow for sports and outdoor activities.
Bergeggi Island
Bergeggi Island
The Bergeggi Island is almost within touching distance. You could actually swim there, just 250 meters from the steep Punta del Maiolo: and, in fact, you can do so with one of the Swim the Island courses, the open-sea swimming competition that takes place in these waters in autumn. Unfortunately it is not possible to land there as it is a Regional Nature Reserve, a protected area with the aim of conserving its extraordinary environment and its historical and archaeological remains. From the 4th-5th century AD, it became a monastic refuge and hosted Saint Eugene, bishop of Carthage. He is said to have taken refuge there in the Early Middle Ages and the monastery with two apses, built in 992 by the Bishop of Savona on the western side and presided over by the monks of the Lérins Islands until 1346, is dedicated to him. The seabed of the Bergeggi Marine Protected Area conceals an invaluable heritage of underground caves and spectacular diving spots such as the Canalone, the Pifferaio and the Punta Predani Marine Cave.
Palmaria Island
Palmaria Island
Palmaria Island forms part of the La Spezia archipelago with the other two islands, Tino and Tinetto. Separated from Portovenere by a narrow stretch of sea called Le bocche it has a surface area of 1.89 km² and is the largest island in Liguria. Without a doubt, the scenery at the entrance to the Straits, with the church of San Pietro and Tino and Tinetto is breathtaking: worthy of a novel by Dumas or Salgari. Palmaria is also the perfect place for adventure: it has a populated side, the one towards the village of Porto Venere, and a wild one, covered in Mediterranean vegetation and with cliffs as high as 180 metres above sea level. Due to its strategic position, right in the heart of the Golfo dei Poeti, Palmaria has a history brimming with colonisations and fortifications: the presence of man is evidenced by a number of findings from five thousand years ago in addition to which the island boasts several military constructions such as the Conte di Cavour Fort. It can be reached by boat or, in the summer months, by ferries from Portovenere, Lerici and La Spezia. Uninhabited for most of the year, it is home to exceptional flora and fauna, with several endemic species typical of the Portovenere Natural Park. The Blue Grotto can only be visited by sea, while the Colombi Grotto, inhabited since ancient times, can only be accessed with some difficulty by land.
Tino Island
Tino Island
Tino Island, around 2.5 km from Porto Venere, made inaccessible by an imposing cliff and by restrictions imposed by the Italian Navy (which manages one of the most important lighthouses in the Mediterranean) is a small treasure trove of biodiversity: maritime pines, holm oaks, myrtles and mastic trees abound, while among the dry stone walls and the remains of ancient monastic settlements, lives the Tarantolino, the smallest Italian gecko, an endemic species.
It is said that Venerio, born on the island of Palmaria around 560 AD, was a monk who lived in the local monastery and later a hermit at the hermitage of Tino. He signaled the presence of the island to vessels by lighting bonfires on the cliff. When he died in 630 AD, the Benedictine monks erected a monastery on his tomb and today he is the patron saint of the Gulf of La Spezia, of the lighthouse keepers of Italy and of all those involved in the operation of lighthouses.
If you want to visit the island of Tino you have only one opportunity: the patronal festival of San Venerio on the 13th and 14th of September, when motorboats depart from Portovenere with two daily trips. But an actual stay on the island is granted to only a limited number of people and many dream of landing there…
Tinetto Island
Tinetto Island
It is so small that it is barely visible, but you will be able to distinguish it among the rocks of its bigger sister, Tino. Tinetto Island smaller and further south than the La Spezia archipelago, remote, wild, ascetic. With its 6,000 m2 of surface area, it is practically half the size of Piazza De Ferrari in Genoa, yet it hides surprises and has aroused the curiosity of sailors, monks and sailors for many years. If you manage to dock there, you'll notice that it has no trees, only Mediterranean scrub and shrubs with vegetation that is sparse and clings to the rocks. Yet even here, where the sea sparkles and the wind blows fiercely, the monks arrived and built a tiny early Christian monastery, perhaps the smallest and oldest in Liguria, dating back to the 5th century, if not slightly earlier. At its southern end, on a half-submerged rock, there is a statue of the Madonna Stella Maris.
The Scola Tower
The Scola Tower
But what is it? A floating castle? The tip of an iceberg-fortress? Is it an island that is and isn't there? When you see it for the first time, you will be deluged with many questions. The Scola Tower (also called the “tower of San Giovanni Battista”) is located just beyond the north-eastern tip of Palmaria. On nautical charts you will find it among the rocks of Palmaria, but it is far enough away to be separated from them and you can think of it as another island, the sixth Ligurian island. Or, simply, it is a fortress built on a rock that has resisted the siege of the sea until today. It is part of the defensive system designed by the Senate of the Republic of Genoa between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to protect the coasts from pirates. It has a strange pentagonal shape, not for esoteric reasons but for strategic ones: it once housed numerous cannons, as many as ten, and was able to cover with its range the entire stretch of sea between the bay of Palmaria, the bay of Portovenere and the inlet of Lerici. It was gutted in a battle between the English and French fleets in 1800 and the only reason it was subsequently not demolished was because it was transformed into a lighthouse. There is nothing, no-one lives there, only vestiges of the past. But if you manage to land there, perhaps by kayak, from Portovenere, you can still imagine yourself as one of those six soldiers who, with a captain and a "master bombardier”, inhabited it and scanned the horizon in search of Barbary pirate ships.
