A Gulf of Poets and Scientists: the experience and challenges of the Scientific Dissemination Group of La Spezia (Liguria –Italy)

Venezia, Italia

In the Northern part of Italy, in Region Liguria, there is a Gulf, which is known also as the “Gulf of the
Poets”. Why? Because through the centuries, many famous poets, writers and artists spent their
holidays or part of their life in the villages and small towns surrounding the city of La Spezia. Among
the others, the poet Lord Byron and the writer Percy Bysshe Shelley together with his wife Mary, the
clever creator of Frankenstein (a novel that some claim to be the first legitimate example of the genre
we now call science fiction, and that maybe started during the author’s stay in the Gulf - until otherwise
proven). But apart from anecdotes, indeed, the Gulf of Poets is, indeed, also a Gulf of Scientists: La
Spezia (the second Ligurian most important town), has a long maritime tradition that deserves to be
kept alive and cultivated within its own community.