La Spezia Attractions

Source www.lorenzotaccioli.it

La Spezia is rarely thought of as a place to visit. Its proximity to world-famous Italian wonders and UNESCO heritage sites such as Portovenere and Cinque Terre means that it almost becomes just a support town for those who come on these tours.

Even during our weekend in Cinque Terre (here's the full program) it went something like this, but even the host of the hotel we stayed at only fueled this belief. When explaining what to see in the surrounding area, he relegated the historic center of La Spezia to a secondary place. Before we left, however, we wanted to carve out a few hours to visit its historic center.

If you intend to see well the whole historical center of La Spezia, it is necessary to devote about a day to it .

The entire historic center of La Spezia is located between two streets, Corso Cavour and Via del Prione . These streets are parallel and you can go one way and the other on your way back.

Beyond these two streets are three important sights: the port of La Spezia, the Castle of San Giorgio, which towers over the historic center, and the city's cathedral, dedicated to Christ the King.

You can visit the historic center of La Spezia comfortably by foot.

Port Golfo dei Poeti and Taon de Revelle Bridge

Our visit starts from the port area. We visit La Spezia after returning by bus from Portovenere and the final stop is not far from this place.

The port of La Spezia has for many years been one of the main commercial ports in Italy , specialized in container handling. In addition, large ships arrive at the Garibaldi pier to drop off hundreds of people on their cruises to Cinque Terre.

The Port of La Spezia is located in the Gulf of Poets, the bay formed by the strip of land of Portovenere and which also includes this town, and has developed since the 19th century with ever-increasing success.

If you are here, you can cross the mainland by crossing the Thaon de Revel bridge to the small island that supports the port. This bridge connects the Morin waterfront with the port of Mirabello through a structure over one hundred and fifty meters long and about three meters wide.

Its finishes are precious and mainly composed of exotic wood combined with white steel construction.

The Taon de Revelle Bridge was open in July 2013 and was built by the Port Authority of La Spezia in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense of the Navy.

Waterfront

Back in town, the waterfront is between the Thaon de Revel bridge and the squares . It is a beautiful walk that goes all around the area where boats and ships are moored. From here you have a beautiful view to the Bay of Poets and the Ligurian Sea.

The walk is improved by the greenery (and shade) of the tall palm trees that adorn the promenade of Costantino Morin, which then continues along Viale Italia.

Squares and Garibaldi Monument

Between the waterfront and the historic center are long squares. This square, full of benches and trees, is not empty even at night, as is often the case in big cities.

The public gardens of La Spezia are known for the great botanical diversity of the species they contain. They were designed and built in the nineteenth century, more precisely in 1825 there was already a park here. Over the years, already in the 19th century, there was a gradual expansion of this green space at the same speed as the size of the city.

In the park there is also the Garibaldi Monument, a large equestrian statue that pays tribute to this personality who stayed several times in La Spezia. The statue dates back to the second half of the 19th century: in 1882 a competition was announced among the major sculptors of the time to produce this work. Antonio Garella won the competition.

Naval Museum and Naval Arsenal

The Naval Arsenal is located near the port. This of La Spezia is one of three arsenals in Italy (other in Augusta and in Taranto). The original idea of setting up an arsenal in this bay came from Napoleon, but it was only Cavour's project in 1857 that followed it up. In 1869 the La Spezia naval arsenal was opened. The ditches that surrounded it were filled with water to make it safer.

In the following decades, other fortification systems were created to prevent the arsenal from being captured. However, its nature has always made it a very sensitive target, so much so that during World War II it was bombed and put out of commission. Iimmediately work was done to rebuild it and by the end of the war the arsenal could be used again.

Today the structure employs about a thousand civilians as well as two hundred military personnel. Despite this, the arsenal is gradually losing its importance, also due to new strategic arrangements. Thus, the staff is in decline, playing against the structure. There are also privacy issues compromised by the tall buildings nearby that manage to keep an eye on the entire area. The Navy arsenal has also been at the center of a scandal involving the spread of toxic substances released into the environment, such as asbestos.

It is obviously impossible to visit the Naval Arsenal, but next to it is the Naval Technical Museum, one of the most visited museums in all of La Spezia and the most important of its kind in all of Italy. It has been there since 1958, although its origins date back to 1923, when it was located in the mechanical workshops of the Navy.

In fact, however, its origins are more than a century old: it finds its basis in the Genoa Naval Museum, active since 1815 and moved to this city in 1870. Inside you can see models of warships from before the last century, as well as numerous figurines (wooden decorations attached to ships), also dating back to the 15th century. The materials are distributed in different halls that bear the names of the exhibits: the antique weapons hall, the underwater weapons hall and the assault vehicles hall.

Corso Cavour and Via del Prione

Our walk through the historic center of La Spezia continues between two streets that mark the walk through this seaside town. Corso Cavour, closer to the Naval Arsenal and Via del Prione, a parallel street which. Together thеy defines the boundaries of the more central areas.

Both paths lead to the public gardens. These streets are lined with numerous stores, attracting locals and tourists for a relaxing walk.

The buildings of the Historic Center and Palazzo Aldoini

The buildings in the historic center, some of them in Art Modern style, are mostly well preserved and have unusually decorated facades.

 

Among the noble palaces, Palazzo Oldoini, now also known as Palazzo dei Nobili, has attracted my attention. Its name comes from Virginia Oldoini, a sensual woman who lived during the Risorgimento in this building and who has a statue on the facade. The woman, also called "golden vulva", had many lovers in her life, at least 43, and thay said that she was at the center of the events of the Risorgimento thanks to her indiscriminate connections with the personalities of the time.

Virginia Aldoini loved to be photographed, but after noticing how she was getting older, she decided to remove all mirrors from her house so that she would no longer see her image. Despite this, she enjoyed continuing to be photographed.

The Church of Santa Maria Assunta

In the historic center, in Piazza Giulio Beverini, is the church of Santa Maria Assunta . Unfortunately, in front of this church there is a large parking lot at street level, which does not allow you to fully enjoy the beauty of the church. The church of Santa Maria Assunta has very ancient origins: it seems to have been founded in 1271 not far from here. However, in the fifteenth century it was moved to ensure its protection inside the city walls built by that time.

The bell tower, now dilapidated, was destroyed in 1935 and immediately rebuilt. Unfortunately, it will be one of the few elements of the church that will survive the World War II bombings that destroyed it almost completely. The reconstruction work began quickly and the people of La Spezia got a brand new church.

Market Square

Walking through La Spezia, we arrive at the market square. This square is equipped with wave-shaped roofs that shelters you and the stalls from bad weather and the most sunny days, as well as getting space on the mezzanine floor for events open to the public.

As La Spezia is a port city, it is not hard to imagine how much fish you can find in the market near the Ligurian Sea.

Garibaldi Square

One of the most important squares in La Spezia is Piazza Garibaldi, from which the Via del Prione also starts and then goes on towards the port. This square is named after Garibaldi in honor of his frequent visits to the city.

The shape of this square is rather irregular, because it was born as a meeting point of the different streets in the center, which converge here. In the center of the square is a fountain with a large sculpture by Villano Tarabella. The sculpture and fountain, are represents two crossing sails, from which a jet of water is born.

Around the square there are several recently restored Art Nouveau buildings.

Palace of Arts (Palazzina delle Arti)

Moving along Via del Prione, you come across various sights. The first of these is the Seal Museum, located in the Palazzina delle Arti . The building, built during twenty years in a neo-medieval style, is connected to the adjacent Monastery of San Francesco da Paola. The building originally housed a hygiene office, and since 2000 it has been home to the Seal Museum and the Library of History of Art and Archaeology , which has about twelve thousand volumes.

Inside there are various items including seals (which were also used to seal envelopes) from the 4th millennium BC to the most recent centuries. Also on display are the tools used to fill the seals, i.e. Egyptian stone matrices, not Roman era rings and others more recent.

Amedeo Lia Civic Museum

Next to the Palazzina delle Arti, in the area occupied by the Monastery of San Francesco da Paola, the Amedeo Lia Civic Museum is today located. Opened in 1996, it displays various works acquired by the collector Amedeo Lea, who decided to donate them to the municipality of La Spezia during his lifetime.

The building in which the collection is kept was built in the 17th century as a convent. Overthe years, its functions have changed several times: it has been a military and civil hospital, a barrack, a private residence, a magistrate's office, a magistrate's court and a municipal institution, and it became a museum space after its renovation in the 1990s.

Civic Theater

In Piazza Mentana at the end of Via del Prione, a few steps from the city gardens, is the most important theater in all of La Spezia, the Civic Theater. This theater is the oldest built in the city. The San Carlo Theater, although older as an institution, was not built new, but occupied an existing church. The Civic Theater was built from 1840 in the Neoclassical style. Within six years the Civic Theater was ready to open.

The present appearance is not the original one, but comes to us after extensive remodeling done in the thirties of the last century. One of the main features of the Civic Theater is the opening dome, on which the zodiac constellations are painted, which can be admired on summer evenings when the building is open.

Over the years, this space gradually lost importance, so much so that it was used only as a movie theater. However, the decline of other theaters brought it back into fashion, and after a second restructuring (from 1989 to 1995) it returned with a continuous theater program.

Castel San Giorgio in La Spezia

The Castle of San Giorgio is located on the first hills of the town. Already from the harbor you can clearly see its shape with a view of the city.

The archaeological collection of the Museo Ubaldo Formentini is currently located inside. The Castle of San Giorgio, which can be visited today, is the result of profound restoration works developed in the seventies and carried out from 1985 for thirteen years .

The original structure was built in the thirteenth century, extending a small fortress that already existed on the hill. The idea was to create a fortified building that could control the surrounding area. However, the invasion of the Genoese Republic in 1273 also destroyed this castle .

Seventy years later, the castle was rebuilt along with the walls that protected the entire town of La Spezia. Only three hundred meters of the walls remain.

Duomo - Cathedral of Christ the King

The Cathedral of Christ the King is still missing from the list of attractions.

The Cathedral of Christ the King was built in the second half of the last century on the site where there was formerly a Capuchin monastery. There was a hill here in ancient times, which was demolished for connecting the eastern districts with the historical center.

The original project was selected after a competition in 1930. However, the work was postponed several times and, with some modifications to the project, was only completed in 1975. The elevated position of the hill in Europe Square was used to make it more monumental.

The structure is round and massive, about fifty meters in diameter, built of concrete, with a large cemetery facing upstream and partially occupied by a lawn.

The interiors, like the exteriors, are rather bare, and the pews on which the faithful may sit are arranged in a semicircle in front of the altar.

Europe Square

Piazza Europa serves as a link between the Cathedral of Christ the King and the sea of Poets' Bay . The square, renovated in 2016, is completely free and hides underneath a large underground parking lot with more than 250 parking spaces.

Cinque Terre

If you have a few extra days, among the destinations not to be missed once you arrive in La Spezia is definitely a tour of the Cinque Terre. Most of the tourists who flock to this city, in fact, use it as a starting point for the tour to this extremely world-famous tourist destination.

Certainly La Spezia is the ideal starting point to reach Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Rio Maggiore (in descending order of distance). A couple of days will be sufficient to visit all five Lands. Using the Cinque Terre National Park pass, which allows you to take the train from La Spezia and travel unrestricted on the rail line.

The Cinque Terre are very short distances: from not even a ten-minute train ride to Rio Maggiore, to just over twenty minutes to Monterosso al Mare.

Portovenere

Another place not to be missed when in La Spezia is Portovenere. Less famous than Cinque Terre, but much more beautiful (in my opinion).

This town sits on a strip of land covering Poets Bay of the Ligurian Sea and has quite a fascinating history, as well as many attractions and a really charming historical center.