The territory

The farm inn Locanda del Papa is located in the ancient Commune of Carpena, on the hills that overlook the Cinque Terre, a few feet from the Foce Pass, from where the view extends to La Spezia and the area contained between Portovenere and Lerici called the Gulf of Poets.
There is no problem with parking, since the property is totally enclosed and the access road is entered through a gate.
I know that many of you wish to visit the Cinque Terre. Well, this is the ideal place. We are 4 km from the La Spezia RR Station and the train is the best means of reaching the Cinque Terre (it takes 8 minutes to Riomaggiore and the Via dell'Amore (Lovers Lane).
We are also 5 km from the embarkation point of the passenger boats that in the summer visit all the towns along the Gulf of Poets and the Cinque Terre.
For those who love to walk, path no. 1 of the Cinque Terre begins at our door. The city bus stop is 1500 feet from our House and the La Spezia RR Station only minutes away (busses run every 15-20 minutes).
By car you can reach many places. We are 15 km from Monterosso and 20 km from Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre. La Spezia is very close with its famous naval museum and civic museum Amedeo Lia. Portovenere, designated by UNESCO in 1997 a World Heritage Site, is only 16 km away from our House. Lerici, with its enchanted bay and its beaches certified “Bandiera Blu” (Blue Flag) for their cleanliness is only 12 km away.
Tellaro, designated one of the 100 most beautiful small towns of Italy is 4 km from Lerici.

It is a walled town dating to 1300 and built upon a cliff that can only be reached on foot (500 meters from the parking area).
Sarzana is 15 km away: the lost city of Sarzana, so named because it was never
conquered, with its refined and extraordinary historical center, its antiquarians and artisans.
And then there is the Lunigiana region, with its 30 castles perfectly preserved and many still inhabited.
The Vara Valley has been called the “Organic Valley”, the first in Europe to obtain
environmental certification.
And finally, but there could be more, the marble caves of Carrara, with the acclaimed “Lardo di Colonnata” (Lard of Colonnata), and the labors of man engraved in the stone.
Why has the farm inn been called “Locanda del Papa”? Everyone from time immemorial has always added to the component names of my family the surname “of the Pope.”
When I was very young and handsome I asked myself and others why this name? I asked my parents, grandparents, uncles, and everyone gave me a different explanation.
Maybe it was to distinguish us from others who had the same last name, but in the end I came to believe the story I will now tell you.
Once upon a time whoever came from the South and thus also from Rome, in order to reach Genoa had no other way but the ancient Via Aurelia, that passed by then as now the places where we have always lived.
It is told that one day the Pope and his entourage was traveling along this road headed toward Genoa and perhaps Avignon.
Well, at a certain point, perhaps to stock up on water and let the horses drink, he
stopped at a fountain that gushes naturally from a knoll that belonged to my family. The fountain still exists today and is the delight of cyclists before facing the ascents of the Foce.
Since that time to my family name another was added: family of the Pope, precisely.