Nestled on the west coast of Italy, La Spezia is often only known as being the gateway to the world-famous Cinque Terre.
Yet there’s more to La Spezia, which translates to spice in Italian, than just being a stop-gap to one of Italy’s leading tourist attractions. The port city offers a unique ‘spice’ of its own and is the perfect place to spend a day or two discovering the charm of Liguria’s second-biggest city.
After catching an early flight from Bari to Pisa, I wandered around the busy streets of the current Serie B league leaders, taking pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and drinking as many coffees as one’s stomach would allow while waiting for David’s delayed flight from London to finally touch down.
Eventually, David landed in Tuscany and after sorting out the formalities of car hire, we set off to La Spezia with the rain smashing against the windscreen of the car.
The drive to La Spezia from Pisa is a short one. With Liguria bordering western Tuscany, we reached the city in just under an hour. We arrived to find the rain intensified, with La Spezia, due to its topography, prone to this kind of weather.
After hours of relentless downpours, there was a fear that the reason for our visit, to see Spezia take on Bari in Serie B, might be postponed. With memories still afresh of sitting inside Atalanta’s Gewiss stadium and waiting for a game against Como that never happened, David and I crossed our fingers that the same fate wouldn’t befall us twice in one month.
With our accommodation situated in Piazzetta del Bastione, several food options were close to us. With the rain unrelenting, we made the short dash to a cracking little Japanese restaurant called Nippon Street, with a bowl of ramen and pieces of sushi just the thing to bring back the warmth.
Thankfully, the weather softened just in time for our casual stroll towards the Alberto Picco stadium, side-stepping puddles like Diego Maradona did tackles. The stadium was about a 15-minute walk from our accommodation in the centre of the city, and we reached the Picco with a few minutes to spare before the 8.30pm kick-off.
Spezia are having a terrific start to the season under manager Luca D’Angelo, and there is a realistic chance of promotion back to Serie A after enjoying three consecutive campaigns in the sun before relegation in 2022-23.
Spezia’s return to second-tier football last season produced a very disappointing 15th-place finish. However, D’Angelo has turned things around and going into the game were second in the table.
The adverse weather no doubt played a part in the half-full stadium, yet there was impressive away support from Bari, with the club selling out their ticket allocation of 150 for the long trek north.
Fortunately, the rain didn’t deter the sales staff at the Spezia Store from opening the doors to the public.
The centre of La Spezia is lively on a Friday night, with plenty of locals out and about despite the day of biblical rain. We made our way to Via Marsala and to a bustling bar called Distrò, where Amaro and Campari spritz were washed down as people spilled out into the street.
Despite the elements battering the roof of our accommodation during the night, Saturday was a much brighter affair for Destination Calcio. After a regular filling of cappuccini and brioche, we made our way back to Tuscany for our second sampling of Serie B action.
Carrara, who can count among its citizens arguably one of the greatest goalkeepers in the history of the sport in one Gigi Buffon, is a mere 40-minute journey by car.
As we left Liguria and into Tuscany, the sun began to shine. Our match for the day was Carrarese’s second official home game in Serie B, with Cittadella coming to town. Buffon had owned the club, along with former Livorno striker Cristiano Lucarelli, from 2010 to 2015, and the club won promotion back to Serie B via the Serie C playoffs.
The Stadio dei Marmi, called so due to Carrara’s reputation as the epicentre of the marble industry in Italy, is as bare bones a stadium as one can imagine. The club have had to upgrade its facilities quickly in light of their return to Serie B football and had to play all of their first eight games of the season away from Carrara, borrowing Pisa’s Stadio Romeo Anconetani for several games. The surroundings are very much still a work in progress and work is now underway to transform the Curva Sud and bring it closer to the pitch.
Carrarese however did send their fans home happy with a comprehensive 3-0 win, and there was sympathy for the travelling Cittadella support, who would have to make the long trek back to Veneto on the back of a dismal performance.
Post-game food was consumed in a local pizzeria, FolleMente, on Via Rinchiosa while Atalanta’s 6-1 trashing of Hellas Verona played in the background. With nightfall now upon us, a stroll down to the marina was in order to walk off the pizza and vino.
The return to La Spezia also meant a return to Via Marsala and a drink before bed.
With a day of no calcio ahead, at least in person, David and I took the day to see a little of La Spezia. Potential visitors should be aware that most places close in the early afternoon, so if you’re planning lunch, plan accordingly.
Unable to resist another visit to Nippon Street, the sushi fuelled our jaunt around the city. La Spezia is very walkable and easy to manoeuvre around. With Cinque Terre not far from La Spezia, it would’ve been rude not to jump in the car and catch a glimpse, so we ventured up to Riomaggiore, the first stop of the ‘five lands’.
Full of colourful houses nestled in a valley surrounded by Mount Verugola, Riomaggiore was busy with tourists either on the way up or making their descent towards the seafront. Houses washed in light pinks, yellows and oranges stand out amid the backdrop of the mountain, and the narrow pathways and steps down could prove challenging on rainy days.
Thankfully for us, the weather was perfect, and after climbing all around large boulders leading out to the sea, we got a full view of the beauty of Riomaggiore while also working up a bit of a sweat. A curious sighting was a Boca Juniors badge among tiled artwork on a wall.
Back in La Spezia, Bacio Pizza e Bollecine were serving up pizzas in a different way — cut up into parts with some of the ingredients in the middle of the plate — was certainly interesting, while David had a Keto-style pizza, a light base free of yeast.
With an evening flight from Pisa to catch on Monday, David and I had time to spare in La Spezia, so after our morning coffee and cornetti, we strolled down to the port. This part of the city is more akin to Miami, with its lined palm trees, than Italy. Yet it doesn’t make it any less beautiful.
As the sun shone and people waited on buses to escort them to the Cinque Terre, we took in the view, with the mountains overlooking the city in the background. A stop in Forte dei Marmi, a posh seaside town over the Tuscan border, near Lucca, was our last stop before Pisa.
A town of just under 7,000 people, Forte dei Marmi usually caters to people in the upper echelons of society and, for a few hours, Destination Calcio.
One can imagine the town thriving in the summer months, yet this is late October, and things were very quiet. Forte dei Miami in a sense operates within its own bubble. Italian roads aren’t the greatest even at the best of times, yet here they’re in pristine condition. On a large stretch of road leading to the restaurant we’d eventually eat at, you’d be forgiven for thinking you weren’t in Italy, but in Australia or the US, with the sea on one side, lush trees and neatly maintained houses on the other.
The legendary Agnelli family, the epitome of the Italian upper class, had a luxurious villa in Forte dei Marmi for decades. Famous Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli and his family live in the town, as does arguably the most famous referee of all time, Pierluigi Collina.
Sadly, no famous people were spotted, but we did eat at the terrific restaurant Lo Scivolo on Viale Apua. I had some fried baccala (fish, not Bobby from The Sopranos), while David had seared tuna with a mixed salad. All of this, plus two coffees and a bottle of water, came to around €51.
While Cinque Terre takes all the spotlight in this area of Italy, La Spezia definitely shouldn’t be overlooked. The city itself has much to offer and isn’t far from Carrara, Forte dei Marmi and even Pisa for day trips.
