Baia Blu: The Bay That Named a Gulf for the Wrong Reason

Italy | Liguria | La Spezia | Gulf of Poets

The name Golfo dei Poeti, Gulf of Poets, wasn’t actually coined for Byron or Shelley at all. Italian writer Sem Benelli first used the phrase in 1910 to commemorate Paolo Mantegazza, a writer, neurologist, and anthropologist who had died at his residence in San Terenzo, a village that sits directly beside the bay now known as Baia Blu. It was only afterward that the region’s earlier, more famous literary residents, the Shelleys and Byron among them, helped cement the name in wider use, effectively rewriting the story of its origin in popular memory. I found the correction genuinely satisfying to learn, standing at a beach whose own former name, Cala Chiappara or Ciappara, has been almost entirely replaced by its modern, more marketable identity as Baia Blu, a small pattern repeating itself twice over on the same stretch of coast.

Baia Blu sits at the westernmost edge of San Terenzo, in the hillside hamlet of Pozzuolo, a village historically known for olive oil and Mongiardino wine production long before anyone thought to build a beach resort along the water below it.

A Compact Cove Split Between Free Sand and Two Resorts

The beach runs roughly two hundred meters, a tactile mix of fine golden sand, pearly gravel, and smooth pebbles, split cleanly between a free public section toward Punta Galera and two organized beach clubs toward Punta Santa Teresa. I found the water exceptionally clean, sheltered enough by the surrounding headlands that incoming swells arrived gently tamed rather than choppy, the color shifting from translucent turquoise near the sand into a rich cobalt further out. The beach slopes down gently into the sea, and I’d call this a genuinely reassuring choice for families given how far the shallow water extends before any real depth begins, safe wading and calm swimming for a considerable distance from shore.

Cliffside Pools Alongside the Natural Cove

What sets the larger of Baia Blu’s two beach clubs apart is its cliffside terrace, freshwater pools with water slides built directly into the rock above the sea, a genuinely unusual addition I hadn’t found paired with a natural cove anywhere else on this coast. Premium loungers with built-in headrests, changing cabins, and both hot and cold rinsing showers cover the practical side, and certified lifeguards watch both the beach and the pool decks throughout the season. Given how thoroughly organized the two resort sections are, I’d expect dogs to need explicit permission there, with the free public stretch toward Punta Galera likely following Italy’s standard leash rule outside the water.

A Marine Research Bay Just Around the Headland

The bay of Santa Teresa, just past the point sheltering Baia Blu, now hosts Smart Bay Santa Teresa, a genuine research collaboration between Italian scientific institutions studying mollusc farming and climate resilience, using this exact stretch of coast as a working laboratory rather than simply a backdrop. I found it a strange, quietly reassuring detail to learn while floating in the calm water nearby, the same gulf that inspired poets now also supporting considerably less romantic, more practical work.

Getting There and Settling In

Baia Blu sits in Pozzuolo, reachable from La Spezia or Lerici by following the coastal road through three tunnels before turning left onto Via Pianelloni toward Pitelli and Pozzuolo, with the resort’s own 200-stall parking garage offering a shuttle down the steep hill for anyone who books a beach spot in advance; ATC public buses run from La Spezia’s central station or Lerici’s town center to Pozzuolo, leaving a short scenic walk downhill, and hikers can reach the bay on foot via a paved path climbing up from San Terenzo Beach Lerici, winding through silver olive orchards before delivering a genuinely rewarding view down into the cove. Anyone building a longer day around this stretch of gulf will also find Beach Fiascherino 2 Lerici and Lido di Lerici within easy reach, each offering its own distinct read on the same small stretch of coastline.

Standing Where a Name Outlived Its Own Origin

By the time I packed up on my last evening at Baia Blu, the light had dropped low enough to catch the cliffs in a deep gold, and I thought about how thoroughly a name can drift from its original meaning, a gulf called for a poet nobody outside Italy remembers, a beach still occasionally called by a name most visitors have never heard, both quietly persisting underneath whatever story happens to be told about them now.