Lerici

It’s impossible to estabilish the real Lerici’s time of foundation but the study on its ancient name “Portus Illycis” (probably from the greek “Iliakos”: Troyan) fed the theory of the foundation by a group of exiles from the War of Troy; this theory is supported by landscape’s beauties (similar to that of the Greek coasts) and by the fact that one of Lerici’s creek is consecrated to Venus. The village was an important harbour for greek and phoenician trades, but it had its greatest links with the Etruscans, thanks to the closeness to Luni. Lerici was contended by the Romans to the Ligurians for the relevant importance on maritime routes; the Romans conquered and used it as a trading and military stationing. The harbour was important during the Medieval Age,too; under the power of Luni’s Bishop, a lot of travellers, pilgrims and merchants arrived in Lerici along their journey to the north of Italy and the central Europe, through the neuralgic knot of Sarzana. A branch of the Francigena Road arrives to the Poets’ Gulf because pilgrims left just from Lerici to go to Santiago de Compostela or Rome...