La Spezia in two days: an itinerary that allows for where you will actually go

Let us say the truth itineraries usually hide: almost nobody spends two days in La Spezia. They spend them in the Cinque Terre and around the gulf, and sleep in La Spezia.

Pretending otherwise produces plans nobody follows. So this itinerary starts there: two days based in La Spezia, in which the city gets the time it deserves — half a day — and the rest goes where you want to go.

Day 1, morning: the city, before it fills up

The right moment for the city is early on the first morning, when you have just arrived and the trains to the villages are already packed.

1. The Naval Technical Museum, beside the arsenal. It is where you grasp why this city exists: the Navy's arsenal was inaugurated here in 1869, and in eighty years the population went from 15,300 to 123,000.
2. Via del Prione on foot. Pedestrian, crossing the whole centre, and at number 234 the Amedeo Lia Museum: a twentieth-century private collection inside a convent of 1616.
3. If your legs are willing, the climb to Castello San Giorgio on the Poggio hill — thirteenth century, the only thing here older than the city, with the Archaeological Museum inside and the gulf below.

The detail on each stop is in what to see in La Spezia.

Day 1, afternoon: the gulf by boat

In the afternoon you cross the gulf by sea, and it is the finest thing in the two days.

West takes you to Portovenere and Palmaria island: rock, better water, a UNESCO village. East takes you to Lerici and San Terenzo — real beaches, and the village where in 1910 the sentence that christened the Gulf of Poets was spoken.

Choose one. Doing both in an afternoon means seeing two quays.

Watch one thing that decides the day: the boats follow the season, the buses do not. In April or October, check first. The picture is in beaches and sea at La Spezia.

Day 2: the Cinque Terre, and how not to waste them

The second day is the one you came for. You leave by train from the station, which is in town.

The advice that changes the day: leave early and choose two, not five. Five villages in a day means five stations, five crowds and no memory. Two villages unhurried — one in the morning, one in the afternoon — is what stays.

How the trains, tickets and timetables work is in Cinque Terre by train.

If it rains, the order reverses

This is the real advantage of having a city as a base: both museums are indoors. With rain you swap the programme — the city on the bad day, the gulf and the villages on the good one — and lose nothing.

An itinerary that depends only on sunshine, in Liguria in September, is a fragile itinerary.

If you have children

The order stays but the timings shorten, and there is one more reason to sleep in the city rather than a village: pharmacies, supermarkets, no stairs. The full reasoning is in La Spezia with children.

What NOT to do

• Do not give the city no time at all. It is the commonest mistake: arrive, sleep, leave. Half a day is enough and it pays.
• Do not try five villages in a day. See above.
• Do not count on the boat without checking. Out of season it may not run.
• Do not look for the beach in the city. There is none: the waterfront is port and arsenal.

The full picture of the city is in La Spezia: the complete guide, and how to get here in getting to La Spezia.

Frequently asked questions

Are two days enough for La Spezia and the Cinque Terre?

Yes, if you accept the right division: half a day for the city, an afternoon on the gulf by boat and a full day for the Cinque Terre. What is not enough is trying to see all five villages.

What can you see in La Spezia in half a day?

The Naval Technical Museum beside the arsenal, Via del Prione with the Amedeo Lia Museum at number 234 and, if your legs are willing, Castello San Giorgio on the Poggio hill.

Portovenere or Lerici for a day?

One of the two, not both. Portovenere is rock, better water and a UNESCO village; Lerici and San Terenzo have real beaches and are the easier shore with children.

How many Cinque Terre villages can you see in a day?

Two, unhurried. Five in a day means five stations and five queues: you go back tired and with no memory.

And if it rains?

You reverse the programme: La Spezia's two museums are indoors, so the city goes on the bad day and the gulf on the good one. That is the advantage of a city as a base rather than a village.