San Terenzo is a small Village which is today a fraction of the most renowned Lerici, but it did exist as an independent town already in the Middle Ages: the fishermen and sailors village was also an important hub for the trade of wine and olive oil and also hosted a hospital for pilgrims.
To get to San Terenzo, the best way is enjoying the nice walk from Lerici, where you can leave your car. In San Terenzo also stops the bus coming from La Spezia.
In summer, the beach of San Terenzo is very crowded, you can rent beach umbrella and chairs to lay on one of the most popular beaches of the area.
According to a legend, also the Monk Terenzio landed here on his pilgrimage to Rome, but after a few miles he was murdered by bandits and the villages of the area fought for the right to hold the body. To settle the issue, it was decided to put the body on a cart pulled by oxen, and where the horse would stop exhausted, there the Saint to be would have been buried: it happened in the mountains already in Tuscany, as depicted in a painting in the church dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, which also hosts a fifteenth century bas-relief by Domenico Gare the “painting of the Madonna of the Arena”, so called because it was found on the beach (“Arena”) after a heavy storm.
At the western end of the village is a fort of the late Middle Ages, called the Castle, which was built by the villagers.
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september, 2016
