The lush green vegetation, the blue sea, the golden sandy beaches and the harmony of the multicolored seaside houses that come as far as the beach is what I love about the Bay of Silence in Sestri Levante.

Getting a gelato, a piece of focaccia or stopping in one of the little restaurant, scattered among the alleys of this small town, to eat a pizza is just the best way to end the day.

Sestri Levante is unique, it is on a peninsula on the “Golfo of Tigullio”. This peninsula has on one side the beautiful and romantic “Baia del Silenzio” (Bay of Silence) and “Baia delle Favole”(Bay of Fairy Tales) on the other.

The first thing that you note visiting the “Bay of Silence” are the ‘gozzi’. They are typical fishing boats, resting on the beach after a fishing trip.

Speaking with a local, she told me about the legend of the “Golfo of Tigullio”, I was enchanted by her words. The legend says…

Once upon a time there was an enchanting place on the Ligurian Sea, a spot where the water was cleaner and the sun was shining longer. Here the Sirens, dazzled by the wonderful scenery offered by the island, settled down on the cliffs that, like little thrones, were rising from the water.

One day, from the coast of Sestri Levante, Tigullio, the youngest and most handsome of the tritons, saw Segesta, the most fascinating and beautiful of the sirens. She had eyes more blue then the water and hairs more lucent than the sky, though he fell in love with her.

One night while the shining moon was covering the rocks with silver and many stars were pulsing like his heart, Tigullio tried to abduct Segesta.

But Neptune, the sea God, didn’t agree that such a paradise could be stolen of the most delicate of his gems and punished Tigullio petrifying his arm overstretched to catch the siren.

Then was formed the hystm of Sestri Levante, that joins the island to the continent and nowadays it’s still possible to admire that promontory, those cliffs and that sea and realize that Sirens are sleeping there.