Baia del Silenzio

The Bay of Silence is a crescent of sand beneath Sestri Levante’s historic peninsula. The municipal tourism portal attributes its name to local poet Giovanni Descalzo, who used it in 1919.

Why it matters

Known as the city of two seas, Sestri Levante has the Baia del Silenzio to the east of its peninsula. The bay sits against the historic peninsula, an upland once a true island until a sandy isthmus, built from stream sediments and the sea's own work, fixed it to the mainland in the modern era. The municipal tourism portal records that the Ligurian poet Giovanni Descalzo, who lived in the town, first called it the Bay of Silence in 1919. The bay has also appeared in the FAI’s I Luoghi del Cuore census campaigns from 2003 through 2024.

What to notice

The bay brings together three elements: a beach that is a narrow strip of fine sand with water that stays unusually calm because the peninsula shields the cove from open-sea swell. Above it, pastel-coloured houses line the old borgo. To one side stands the Romanesque bulk of San Nicolò dell'Isola, and the green shoulder of the Punta Manara promontory closes the view south-east. The municipal portal describes the water as clear, with the seabed visible in calm conditions.

Context and history

The bay's scenery is recent by geological standards. The old centre perches on that strip of land wedged between the two bays, and written sources describe the peninsula as an "island" from the Middle Ages until the sandy causeway completed the union. A church dedicated to San Nicolò stood on the rock by 1151, serving the fishing community long before the town spread onto the mainland.

From the nineteenth century, the bay attracted visitors travelling along the Ligurian coast. The municipal tourism portal associates it with Hans Christian Andersen, Richard Wagner, Guglielmo Marconi and the Dutch writer Arthur van Schendel, who lived at Casa Bianca above the water from 1921. Descalzo’s 1919 name for the bay reflects its literary associations.