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The waterlilies house

A fascinating name for one of the many underground waterways of the gulf- we call them Sprugole - from the Latin word "Spelunca": dark and menacing cave. One of these waterways is Bocca Lupara, in La Spezia - going north to the Foce area - a place lost in the woods, mingled with brambles and wild.
That name calls forth big open jaws of some terrible creature, ready to wolf the poor hapless victim walked by. A marmorean inscription is upon the entrance: the House of the Waterlilies, Nympharum Domus.
A witness to his presence is provided by Lazzaro Spallanzani who recalls that "in the Villa of Spinola Lords, there is a fountain called Domus Nympharum a distant rifle shot from Bocca Lupara .."
Most likely the plaque was affixed to a few centuries ago by a humanist lover - certainly the place had to conjure great beauty and wonder, and today, albeit in a state of neglect and uneducated, leads us away with their own imagination thanks to the marble plaque in Roman letters.

A place perhaps as much magic to bring some of the Aeneid commentators to think that the La Spezia Gulf - and not the Libyan coast - is the one Virgil in the Aeneid was talking about, where he spoke of a "Nimpharum domus", a place of nymphs, in which Enea landed, after the storm set off against him by Juno.
Today is a very special and interesting place for lovers of Greek literature and of the wild - but not only!
Historically the trail access from Maggiano was crossing this area, with cobbled stone worked culminating in a stairway in the closest to the cave; the wash-house facing the entrance, fed by karst spring, flanked by a second tank.

You just have to have your eyes open (and some courage too!) to explore the surroundings of the fount.

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The waterlilies house

Lost founts into the woods of La Spezia

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