Today I had a friend asking me what and where is La Spezia. Here's all information about this city.
La Spezia is a city in the Liguria area of northern Italy. It is one of the major Italian military and commercial harbours, located between Genoa and Pisa on the Ligurian Sea. Home to one of the biggest military industries in Italy, OTO Melara.
The Province of La Spezia has a surface area of 881 sq km, with a total population of over 222,000 inhabitants. It is made up of 32 Municipalities. In its territory is one of the true jewels of Italy, the celebrated Cinque Terre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site: the five small coastal villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia (a frazione of Vernazza), Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare, are completely free of car traffic, and can be reached
only by a railway, hiking trails and a pedestrian ferry service.
Today, La Spezia is the chief Italian naval station and arsenal and the seat of a navigation school. It is also a commercial port, with shipyards and industries producing machinery, metal products, and refined petroleum.
La Spezia is the point of departure for Cinque Terra (5 land). They are the 5 coastal villages in the province of La Spezia. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all encapsulated in the Cinque Terra national park. The Cinque Terre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 5 land from west to east are: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manar
ola, Riomaggiore.
Lerici is a town of La Spezia, part of the Italian Riveria. For the past, notable authors and writers have lived in Lerici. English writers Mary Shelley & Percy Bysshe Shelly, Hungarian author Baroness Emmuska Orczy were there with her husband. Percy Bysshe Shelly was drown in Lerici on 8 July, 1822 while coming home on a boat trip.
Portoverene is another town of La Spezia along the Italian Riveria. The main s
ights are: The Gothic Church, consecrated in 1198; The Romanesque Church of St. Lawrence, erected in 1098; The Doria Castle. Portoverne is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to it's rich history dated back to at least the middle of the 1st century BCE.
Once a fishing village, La Spezia has been fortified since the Middle Ages. It was badly damaged by Allied bombing in World War II. There is a notable cathedral (14th-16th cent.) in the city; nearby are the ruins of Luna, a Roman town destroyed in the Middle Ages. It is one of the rare gem in northen Italy where the old and new comes alive!
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