La Spezia

The town of La Spezia is situated at the centre of one of the deepest and best protected bays on the Italian coast, surrounded by hills and cliffs overhanging  the sea with beautiful ancient villages and countless beaches on one of the cleanest seas of the Mediterranean. This unique landscape has been declared “mankind’s estate”  by UNESCO.
The location of La Spezia is strategic as well: actually, its district lies between three different regions and it’s easily reachable both by road and by rail.
This is the reason why the town is an ideal starting point to visit the art towns in Liguria, Toscana and Emilia Romagna.
As regards the town’s cultural and economic development, its location had a very important role. The neighbouring regions’ and districts’ influence, from Emilia to Tuscany, from Genoa to the Lunigiana valley, is not to be underrated. The sea had a fundamental role as well: on one hand it fascinated writers, poets and painters from all Europe thanks to the beauty of the coasts, on the other hand it attracted alot of workers for the navy arsenal, the shipyards and the commercial port.
Therefore, a typical Ligurian town, withdrawn and reserved by nature, had to open itself to different traditions and cultures.  And that was all to the cultural growth’s advantage.
Since a few years, the will to rediscover and restore the existing artistic assets and to realise new structures, such as the prestigious Lia Museum, shows La Spezia’s cultural vocation.
At today, La Spezia is able to offer interesting cultural aspects even for the most exigent tourist: the Roman and prehistoric finds in the Formentini Civic Museum, the paintings of Tintoretto, Tiziano, Pontormo and the fourteenth-century miniatures in the Lia Museum, the figureheads and war instruments of  nineteenth-century ships at the Naval Museum.

Besides, the Castle of Saint Giorgio and the Church of Saint Maria Assunta, both dated back to the thirteenth century. La Spezia also shows evidences of the futurist time, such as the mosaic of the Post Office building, while the old town centre hosts many buildings in the Liberty style.  And then the neighbour resorts: the ancient Luni, Portovenere, Lerici, Sarzana, Cinque Terre, Levanto, Varese Ligure and the small villages of the Vara valley are only some of the most historical and traditional destinations of La Spezia’s district.