Is it worth visiting La Spezia when visiting Cinque Terre?
You are planning your trip to the Cinque Terre, but is wondering if it is worth to stay in La Spezia instead of Cinque Terre? Is it worth to save a day to visit La Spezia? What is there to see and do? On this post I will highlight the best things to see and do in a day in La Spezia, Italy.
Subscribe to my blog, so you will not miss any of my posts published every week.
We woke up on our second night at “Affittacamere Casa Dane” in La Spezia feeling refreshed and ready to spend our last day in Italy. Although this guesthouse is on top of the train station, we can’t hear any noises from the trains, the station or the street. They have triple glazing on the windows, and we were not disturbed at all with any noise.
We were travelling independently as we are confident travellers and speak a bit of the language. However, if you prefer to be part of a tour and to have everything organised for you, I advise you to book a complete tour with Tourradar.
They have different kinds of tours that will fit your time and budget. If you book it via my links you can get a discount by using this code: RoseG50.
After breakfast at the café (see my previous post on Portofino) we checked out of the guesthouse and left our luggage in their lockers. We then started our explorations of La Spezia. However, before telling you about that, let’s learn …
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT LA SPEZIA
La Spezia is located between Pisa and Genoa and just on the border of Liguria and Tuscany. It is the second biggest city in Liguria, Genoa being the first. It was settled in prehistoric times and was an important centre in the Roman times.
La Spezia developed throughout the years and from 1862 a great naval arsenal was installed there by the Royal Government. Until today La Spezia is the base of the Italian Navy and a busy port in Liguria.
It is considered to be the gateway to the Cinque Terre and many people choose La Spezia as their base when visiting the area. Because accommodation in La Spezia is much cheaper than in the Cinque Terre, many people prefer to stay there and go to the Cinque Terre by train.
Many tourists don’t even visit La Spezia, they just stay there for a few nights while they visit other places. However, La Spezia is worth visiting at least for a day to discover the local attractions, the history and the local cuisine.
Our flight to London was only at 6:30 pm from Pisa, so we had almost the whole day to visit La Spezia.
Below is a map showing the places we visited while in La Spezia town:
VISITING LA SPEZIA
We started the visit by walking in the direction of San Giorgio Castle at the top of the hill. It was a small 13th century castle but was extended later in the years. Today it is home to the Archaeological Museum containing objects from the Neolithic age and Roma era.
On our way to the castle, we took Via XX Settembre until we arrived at “Scalinata Cernaia”. From there we climbed up to Via XXVII Marzo and followed the road to the castle.
There are various staircases linking the lower part of the city to the upper part and these staircases are very famous in La Spezia. Other staircases include “Scalinata San Giorgio” and “Scalinata Lazzaro Spallanzani” to name a few.
You can also use a lift “Ascensori di Via Indipendenza” or the “Funiculare di San Giorgio” both off Via XX Settembre and Via Indipendenza, to get to the castle.
Once we got there, we visited the castle and the museum. There are very nice views of La Spezia town from the patio of the castle. It was a very interesting visit and we learned a lot from there.
After the visit was finished, we used another staircase to go down. We went in the direction of the harbour and reached the “Giardini Pubblici” following the road full of Palm trees and the promenade.
We arrived at “Monumento Giuseppe Garibaldi” and turned in the direction of the Marina and the “Ponte Thaon di Revel”. At this point we decided to stop for a drink at a restaurant called “Mitili & Mitili al Mare in the Marina.
The bridge is very modern and was built only in 2013 linking two parts of the Marina. It has lovely views of the Marina and the gardens from there.
We crossed the bridge to the other side and took various photos, but we did not explore the other side.
We went back and entered the “Centro Storico” of La Spezia town.We strolled through the small lanes of the centre and walked on the Corso Cavour. We found a little restaurant on Piazza Santo Agostino called “Pepe Nero” and decided to have our last lunch there.
I had the gnocchi with seafood and my husband had anchovies with burrata. We both enjoyed our lunch very much and after lunch continued walking in the historic centre, this time on Via del Priori in the direction of the train station. It was time to collect our luggage and take the train to Pisa.
We booked our train tickets to Pisa the previous night. We always use Omio to book our train tickets. If you want to book train tickets, use this link to book to anywhere in Europe.
We arrived in Pisa Centrale just before 4 pm and we took the Pisamover which is a small train that takes you directly to the airport. It only takes about 5 minutes and costs about 5 Euros each.
Our flight to London was delayed for about 1 hour, but we finally took off sadly leaving Pisa behind.
It was a great trip to Italy. Browse the site and you will see the Italy series of posts. We love Italy and we love going back and discovering new places as well as returning to the places we have already been. You will soon hear from me again with different places in Italy. Watch this space!
I hope this post will give you some idea of what can be done in La Spezia in one day and will help you plan your own visit there.
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TRIP
Below you will find a list of what to visit, where to stay and where to eat in La Spezia. I classified each place as follows:
BOLD – Visited, tried and recommended
NOT BOLD – Not visited or tried, but planning to visit or try and heard very good reviews
RED – Visited and tried but do not recommend, avoid or be cautious
*** – Excellent
** – Good
* – OK
£££ – Expensive
££ – Fair and affordable
£ – Cheap
WHAT TO SEE IN LA SPEZIA
ATTRACTIONS
1 – The staircases of La Spezia – ***
2 – Castello San Giorgio – ***
3 – Giardini Pubbici – ***
4 – Ponte Thaon Revel – ***
5 – The Marina – ***
6 – Centro Storico – ***
WHERE TO STAY
ACCOMMODATION
1 – Affittacamere Casa Dane – 3* – ££ (We stayed here)
2 – La casa dei Treni Affittacamere city rooms – 4* – ££
3 – Alchimia di Mare – 4* – ££
4 – The Lighthouse – Flat – 3* – ££
5 – Nelli Roons Via Veneto – 4* – ££
6 – La Maison Des Anges – 4* – £££
If you prefer to look for your own accommodation search and book via the below widget:
I use affiliate links such as the links above for Booking.com, Get your Guide, Viator and others. It means that if you use any of my links to make a booking I will get a small commission from the partners I’m affiliated with without any additional cost to you. Please, use the links provided when making a booking, this is a way of supporting blogs like this so we can continue writing informative and interesting posts. I’m very thankful for that.
WHERE TO EAT
RESTAURANTS
1 – Nana Meat & Wine – *** – £££ (We ate here)
2 – Mitili & Mitili al Mare – *** – ££ (We had drinks here)
3 –Pepe Nero – *** – ££ (We ate here)
4 – Osteria Della Corte – £££
5 – La Pia – Pizzeria – ££
6 – Antica Osteria Dei Camalli – £££
If you tried any of my recommendations above, please send me a message and tell me about your experience good or bad, so I can update the list accordingly. Thanks!
If you enjoyed reading this post you might also like to read:
1 – Pisa
2 – Lucca
3 – Florence – Day 1
4 – Florence – Day 2
5 – Siena
6 – Cinque Terre – Riomaggiore
7 – Cinque Terre – Sentiero Azzuro, Vernassa, Coniglia & Manarola
8 – Cinque Terre – Monterosso al Mare
9 – Portofino
10 – La Spezia
Leave a Reply