Gateway to the Cinque Terre — a working naval city with a spectacular gulf and the best pesto outside Genoa
La Spezia is the largest city in the Gulf of Poets (Byron and Shelley both lived nearby) and the practical base for exploring the Cinque Terre — the five cliff-hanging fishing villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. The city itself is a working Italian naval base with a surprisingly good contemporary art museum (CAMeC) and a genuine fish market. The train line from La Spezia connects all five villages in under 20 minutes, making it the most efficient and affordable base for exploring them — far less crowded and expensive than staying in the villages themselves.
La Spezia's deep-water natural harbour made it invaluable to successive powers — the Romans used it, the Genoese fortified it, and Napoleon recognised its strategic value by ordering the construction of the modern naval arsenal in 1861. The Arsenal (now partially open as the Naval Museum) was the largest construction project in unified Italy and transformed the city from a fishing village into a major industrial port. Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned near here in 1822 returning from Livorno; his body was cremated on the beach at Viareggio in a ceremony attended by Byron and Leigh Hunt.