{"id":53976,"date":"2026-09-30T17:28:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T17:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/darkseagreen-rook-345411.hostingersite.com\/liguria\/tellaro\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T07:16:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:16:54","slug":"tellaro","status":"publish","type":"localita","link":"https:\/\/italian-riviera.com\/en\/riviera-di-levante\/tellaro\/","title":{"rendered":"Tellaro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tellaro is a fishing village built on the cliffs at the eastern tip of the Gulf of Poets, on the Ligurian coast south of the Cinque Terre. It belongs to the municipality of Lerici<\/a>, in the province of La Spezia: tall, narrow houses in warm colours, alleys and stairways dropping to the sea and, right on the rocks, the pink church of San Giorgio. It is listed among I Borghi pi\u00f9 belli d’Italia, the “most beautiful villages in Italy”, and has fewer than 600 residents.<\/p>\n

The village was founded by people from Barbazzano, a hilltop settlement destroyed by Saracen raids between the 14th and 15th centuries: the survivors moved down here, where walls and a castle already stood. The houses still follow the line of those fortifications, and from the sea Tellaro looks like a ship about to be launched. Until 1939 it belonged to Ameglia, then passed to Lerici.<\/p>\n

Only one road leads here, the coast road from Lerici through Fiascherino, and the village itself is car-free: you park at the entrance and walk down. Half a day is enough to see Tellaro, but it also makes a quiet base for swimming and for the trails of the Montemarcello park, with Lerici, Portovenere and the Cinque Terre within easy reach.<\/p>\n

What to see in Tellaro<\/h2>\n
\"The<\/figure>\n

The village is tiny and takes about an hour to explore, but it is almost all steps: wear comfortable shoes and leave the pushchair behind.<\/p>\n

Church of San Giorgio<\/h3>\n
\"Church<\/figure>\n

Tellaro’s landmark is an antique-pink church built directly on the rocks at the end of the headland. Its current form dates from the second half of the 16th century, when it was adapted from an older defensive building; the bell tower was one of the castle towers. The interior is plain. Saint George is the village’s patron saint, celebrated on 23 April.<\/p>\n

The legend of the bell-ringing octopus<\/h3>\n

According to tradition, on the night of 19 July 1660 Saracen pirate galleys tried to land while the watchman was asleep. A giant octopus climbed the bell tower of San Giorgio and rang the bells with its tentacles, waking the villagers, who drove the raiders off. Historical accounts mention a landing attempt by the corsair Gallo d’Arenzano and a bell that rang by accident. Either way, the octopus became Tellaro’s symbol: it is the star of the local dish and has its own festival in August.<\/p>\n

Oratory of Santa Maria in Sel\u00e0a<\/h3>\n
\"Church<\/figure>\n

Just above the church, the 17th-century oratory of Santa Maria Assunta, known locally as “in Sel\u00e0a”, has a Baroque fa\u00e7ade with a marble relief of the Assumption. It closes a small terrace-square that drops straight into the sea: the best viewpoint in the village, looking across to San Giorgio and the gulf. In summer the square hosts book talks and concerts.<\/p>\n

Alleys and stairways<\/h3>\n
\"Flowers<\/figure>\n

The old centre is a tangle of narrow lanes, covered passages, steps and tiny squares. The houses are tall and tightly packed, painted in typical Ligurian colours, with flowers on the terraces and sudden glimpses of the sea. Look for the stone tower, one of two survivors of the three that once defended the village, and piazza Figoli, one of the few open spaces between the houses.<\/p>\n

The Marina and the little harbour<\/h3>\n
\"Rocks<\/figure>\n

Go all the way down and you reach the Marina, the lowest part of the village: a small landing for the fishing boats, old stone wash-houses and a tiny beach beneath San Giorgio. At sunset it is the most photographed spot in Tellaro.<\/p>\n

Church of Stella Maris<\/h3>\n

In the upper village, where the road ends, the church of Stella Maris is much more recent: it was built in 1942. It is where the procession of the Underwater Christmas ends on the night of 24 December.<\/p>\n

Fiascherino and D. H. Lawrence’s pink house<\/h3>\n
\"Tellaro<\/figure>\n

On the road to Lerici, about ten minutes’ walk from Tellaro, Fiascherino is a scattered hamlet among pines and cliffs with two of the prettiest coves in the gulf. In 1913\u201314 the English writer D. H. Lawrence lived here with Frieda in a pink house by the sea. He walked to Tellaro to collect his post and described it in his letters as a pirates’ nest of some two hundred souls.<\/p>\n

The ruins of Barbazzano<\/h3>\n

On the hill above the village, among olive groves and dry-stone walls, lie the ruins of Barbazzano, the settlement Tellaro’s founders came from: a tower, the old gate and a small chapel, also dedicated to Saint George. They can only be reached on foot, along the park trails.<\/p>\n

Montemarcello-Magra-Vara Regional Park<\/h3>\n
\"Wooden<\/figure>\n

Tellaro sits on the edge of the Montemarcello-Magra-Vara Regional Natural Park, which protects the Caprione headland down to the mouth of the river Magra. Trails leave from the village and climb through ancient olive groves, pine woods and Mediterranean scrub towards La Serra, Montemarcello and Lerici, with constant views over the gulf and the Apuan Alps.<\/p>\n

Tellaro and the writers<\/h2>\n

The Gulf of Poets owes its name to the Shelleys, Byron and the 19th-century travellers, but Tellaro has a literary story of its own. Besides Lawrence, the Italian writer and film director Mario Soldati discovered it in the late 1960s, made it his home and died here in 1999; he called it “a nirvana between sea and sky”. The poet Attilio Bertolucci came in spring and autumn in search of peace. Pixar’s team also visited Tellaro while preparing the film “Luca”.<\/p>\n

Beaches in Tellaro<\/h2>\n
\"Bay<\/figure>\n

Tellaro has no real beach: you swim off the rocks or in the coves along the road to Lerici. The water is among the clearest in the gulf, but every access involves steps or a path.<\/p>\n