Isola Palmaria is the biggest of the three islands that lie just off the southern tip of the Ligurian coast near Porto Venere, the others being the tiny Tino and Tinetto. Together with the Cinque Terre and Porto Venere itself, they make up a UNESCO World Heritage landscape, and on a clear morning the sight of the cliffs plunging into the water, with pastel houses on the headland opposite, is as good as anything on the Italian coast. The Gulf of La Spezia was nicknamed the Gulf of Poets after the English writers who came here, including Byron, who is said to have swum across to Lerici from a grotto at Porto Venere that now carries his name.
You do not ride onto the island. A short ferry crosses from Porto Venere, and the island itself is a place of footpaths, abandoned military batteries, quarry scars and thick Mediterranean scrub. It was once quarried for Portoro marble, a black stone with golden veins that decorated churches and palaces across Europe. A few farmers and fishermen live on Palmaria, and the paths are rough in places, so wear proper shoes and take water.
What a rider will care about is the road to the water. The coast road from La Spezia to Porto Venere is a narrow, twisting ribbon with the sea close below and stone walls on the other side, a pleasure in spring and a trial in summer, when queues build and parking at the village is limited. Come early, leave the bike at the larger car parks on the approach, and walk the last stretch. Porto Venere has fewer than a thousand people and few services, so fuel is best found in La Spezia or Lerici, the latter a seaside town of nearly nine thousand, with a castle and a long promenade.
The village is worth the effort. The church of San Pietro stands on a rocky promontory where a Roman temple once stood, and its black and white striped stonework glows in late afternoon light, with waves breaking on rocks below. Seafood is the obvious choice for lunch, with mussels from the gulf, trofie with pesto, and farinata, a chickpea pancake baked in a wood oven. Sunset from the headland is a good reason to stay.