The Mediterranean by Grant Allen

Shelley's last months at Lerici -- Story of his death -- Carrara and its marble quarries -- Pisa -- Its grand group of ecclesiastical buildings -- The cloisters of the Campo Santo -- Napoleon's life on Elba -- Origin of the Etruscans -- The ruins of Tarquinii -- Civita Vecchia, the old port of Rome -- Ostia.

The Bay of Spezzia is defined sharply enough on its western side by the long, hilly peninsula which parts it from the Mediterranean, but as this makes only a small angle with the general trend of the coast-line, its termination is less strongly marked on the opposite side. Of its beauties we have spoken in an earlier article, but there is a little town at the southern extremity which, in connection with the coast below, has a melancholy interest to every lover of English literature. Here, at Lerici, Shelley spent what proved to be the last months of his life. The town itself, once strongly fortified by its Pisan owners against their foes of Genoa on the one side and Lucca on the other, is a picturesque spot. The old castle crowns a headland, guarding the little harbor and overlooking the small but busy town. At a short distance to the southeast is the Casa Magni, once a Jesuit seminary, which was occupied by Shelley.