Port of La Spezia
Cruising and Travel

The City of La Spezia (Italian) is not a well-known tourist destination, but it is a popular stopping point for people visiting the famous Cinque Terre. The Port of La Spezia is a beautiful town on the Ligurian coast that offers wonderful pizzas and a lively nightlife. Its beaches offer great sunbathing, and the city is blesses with great natural beauty and a rich cultural heritage. For more details, visit the La Spezia Province tourism website.

The Port of La Spezia offers the National Marine Park of the Cinque Terre, the Park of Monte Marcello, the island Park of Portovenere, and a lush green hinterland. The city also contains cultural resources that include the Ubaldo Formentini Museum (with prehistoric and Roman artifacts), the Lia Museum (for art), and the Naval Museum.

The Port of La Spezia enjoys a typical Mediterranean climate. Its summers are hot, and its winters are warm. Spring and autumn are rainy. Average temperatures range from a high of 28 °C (82 °F) in July to an average low of 2 °C (35 °F) in January. Rainfall is double that of London. Snow is rare, falling once or twice per year.

The most popular tourist attraction at the Port of La Spezia is the Cinque Terre, five villages built into the rocks between the beach and the hills along 12 kilometers of rocky coastline. Along the way, visitors enjoy stops at wonderful beer gardens. The "Five Lands" include the villages of Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The villages, the coastline, and the hillsides are part of the Cinque Terre National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For centuries, people have been building terraces where paths, trains, and boats connect the villages that can't be reached by cars.

The villages are connected by a walking trail from Riomaggiore (reached by train from the Port of La Spezia) to Manarola. The Via Dell'Amore varies from easy strolls to steep challenging hikes. The trails are narrow and crowded in the tourist season, and maps are advised for casual travelers who may not want to try the more difficult sections of the trail. Each village has small hotels, and there are many bed and breakfasts in the area. Seafood is the most plentiful local cuisine. Anchovies are the local specialty at Monterosso. Grapes and olives are grown here, and there are two local wines that visitors will enjoy.

Travelers who want to visit the Port of La Spezia by sea can find a list of scheduled cruises on the Cruise Compete website.

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