Population:  4,041 (2004)
Official site: Portovenere
Wikipedia: Portovenere
Mapquest: Portovenere

Portovenere is not in the Cinque Terre national park despite its short distance from Riomaggiore. It is however, one of the most interesting places on the Riviera di Levante to visit, as its history as a fortress town and spawning ground of literary ideas (for Lord Byron and Shelley Keats among others), make it one of the more interesting places on the Italian Riviera to visit and will complete any visit to the Cinque Terre.

The town's small colourful houses, some dating from the 12th century, were once all connected to the citadel at the centre of the town, so tha t in times of attack the villageers could reach the safety of the battlements. 

The town commands a strategic position at the end of a peninsula that extends southeast from the Cinque Terre and forms the western border of the Gulf of Laspezia.

Lord Byron (1788-1824) is said to have written Childe Harold's Pilgrimage in Portovenere.  Near the entrance to the huge, strange Grotto Arpaia, at the base of the sea-swept cliff, is a plaque recounting the poet's strength and courage as he swam across the gulf to the village of San Terenzo, near Lerici, to visit his friend Shelley (1792-1822); the feat is commemorated as well by the name of the stretch of water, Golfo dei Poeti (Poet's Gulf). 

San Pietro, a 13th-century Gothic Church is built on the site of of an ancient pagan shrine, on a formidable solid mass of rock above the Grotto Arpaia.  With its black-and-white stripe exterior, its a landmark recognizable from far out at sea.  It's open daily from 7AM to 6PM.