After hiking the Cinqueterre, I headed down the coast to La Spezia and Porto Venere and the area known as "Poet's Bay". My Ancestor, George Gordon Lord Byron used to vacation there, visiting his friend, the Poet, Shelly. Looking at the vast harbor in which they both swam, I understood how Shelly could have drowned in it, and how Byron would have caught pneumonia from swimming in it. The Carrara marble mountains were in the distance, glistening white in the sun. After spending the night at a small inn near the beach, I awoke early and watched the fog roll across the harbor at dawn. Walking down to the beach, took pictures and sketched the scene which became the large 48" x 60" painting of Poet's Bay and the smaller painting Beach at Dawn.
