The Cinque Terre, that jewel of seaside villages which are reflected in the Gulf of Poets where Eastern Liguria approaches Tuscany, do not escape the dangers of mass tourism, the disasters of hit and run tourism and the excesses of an often reckless overbuilding. Not by chance, as in Venice we finally begin to talk about a programmed number of accesses.
If this is the context of the so-called vertical sea of the Cinque Terre, it is even more singular and surprising that tbetween Bonassola and Levanto a corner of paradise like that of the La Francesca tourist village has been preservedalready frequented at the turn of the 60s and 70s by writers and intellectuals of the caliber of Norberto Bobbio.
Located in Eastern Liguria, in a 15-hectare park that overlooks a crystal clear sea and where around fifty villas and apartments are hidden among the pine trees and Mediterranean scrub, La Francesca owes its name to the mule track which in the Middle Ages led along the coast from Portovenere up to France. This paradise in that corner of Liguria that embraces the Cinque Terre owes its fortune not only to generosity of a unique nature but also isolation from the main roads: the railway arrived only in 1880 and the paved road of La Francesca dates back to the early 60s. But it owes its charm, which makes it a place of relaxation and vacation away from the noise of the beaches and nearby towns, also to the innovative intuitions of Gloria Bortolotti De Poli, eldest daughter of the sculptor Timo, who anticipated a model of tourism in close contact with nature. And it's thanks to the son Marco De Poli and his wife Giovanna, who now manage the Village, having saved that model of tourism with foresight and having relaunched La Francesca even after the arson that destroyed it a few years ago and which seemed to have folded it forever. Yes, Marco De Poli is really him, the one who as a young student leapt into national prominence in the mid-60s as director of the student newspaper "La zanzara" of the Parini high school in Milan for a courageous investigation into the sexuality of girls that made history and which became an authentic case of custom.
La Francesca stands on a basin that opens towards the sea between three small gulfs, between the towns of Bonassola and Levanto, inside the Bracco-Mesco regional park in a landscape of suggestive beauty that has geological peculiarities, precious types of rocks and a seabed that also allows underwater activities. Being the favorite destination of lovers of quality tourism, fortunately La Francesca is not advertised much, but visiting it is fortunate and confirms that, even in a turbulent world like today's, a tourism that puts nature and people at the centre and can offer a truly special holiday is just around the corner. Just look for it and know how to find out.
