Lerici and the Gulf of Poets

The Gulf of Poets where Lerici is situated was the source of inspiration for Sam Benelli when writing ‘La cena delle beffe’, the most famous of his literary works. Playwright, poet and writer, Benelli was not the first to draw inspiration from this location. There were artists and intellectuals who chose to live here for a time: from Lord Byron to D. H. Lawrence, from Hans Christian Andersen to Virginia Woolf, from George Sand to Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary, who lived in San Terenzo in Villa Magni. So much so that the ‘Pearl of the Gulf of Poets’ still echoes in the works of artists, writers and playwrights today. It’s as if it were a sounding board for their soul.