The former Albergo Croce di Malta is an elegant 19th-century palazzo in the center of La Spezia, between Via Chiodo and Via Don Minzoni: it was built as a luxury hotel, back when La Spezia was starting to draw travelers and even the royal...
The Ubaldo Mazzini Civic Library is the historic library of La Spezia, housed in Palazzo Crozza, on Corso Cavour. It holds rare books, manuscripts and papers on the history of the city and of Lunigiana.
The palace was the suburban...
La Spezia's Palace of Justice is the great marble-banded cube at the intersection of Viale Italia and Via Carducci, in the Mazzetta neighborhood: it's the first thing you see when you arrive in town from the highway, and one of the symbols of...
The Palazzo del Ghiaccio is La Spezia's old ice factory, at the intersection of Via Colombo and Via Sprugola: an industrial building from the 1920s so elegant that today it looks like an office building, which is exactly what it became.
It...
The Palazzina delle Arti "L. R. Rosaia" is a neo-medieval building on Via del Prione, La Spezia's historic street, home to an unusual museum: the Museo Civico del Sigillo, with more than 1,500 original seals from the 4th millennium BC to the...
The bust of Ceccardo Roccatagliata Ceccardi stands in the Giardini Pubblici of La Spezia: a large portrait in Carrara marble dedicated to a Ligurian poet with a turbulent life.
The bust is the work of the sculptor Aldo Buttini and was...
The church of Santa Rita houses a large mosaic by the contemporary artist from La Spezia, Ferdinando Carotenuto.
The Church of Sant'Andrea is the parish church of Fabiano Alto, La Spezia's hillside village below Monte Santa Croce: plain on the outside, but inside it keeps some fine works and the wooden group that climbs to the sanctuary of the Madonna...
Palazzo De Nobili, or more properly Oldoini De Nobili, is the gray-and-red Baroque palazzo on Piazza Sant'Agostino, in the historic center of La Spezia: a richly decorated facade to admire from the square, since inside it's still a private...
Palazzo Biassa is the 16th-century noble palazzo on Piazza Beverini, on Corso Cavour in the center of La Spezia: from the outside it looks like a sober office building, but within these walls slept a future queen of France, two popes and an...
Palazzo Contesso is the Art Nouveau palazzo on the corner of Piazza Verdi and Via D'Azeglio, in the center of La Spezia: built as a hotel for sea bathers and a place for sun cures, it's a building of particular elegance.
It was designed by...
The Palazzo degli Studi is the large school building on Piazza Verdi, in the center of La Spezia: since 1923 it has housed the Lorenzo Costa classical high school, and today a middle school as well.
Named after Prince Umberto, it was...
Palazzo San Giorgio is an Art Deco apartment building on Via dei Colli, on the slope above Via XX Settembre in La Spezia: one of the most important of its kind built in the city in the 1920s, recognizable from afar by the female statues crowning...
La Spezia's Museo dello Sport tells the story of sports in the city and its province through documents, memorabilia and materials from local competitions and athletes. It's housed in the "Gianfranco Mariotti" sports arena, and it's a stop for...
The Centro Salvador Allende is the cultural center inside La Spezia's Giardini Pubblici, along Viale Mazzini: art exhibitions, lectures, concerts and, in summer, the open-air arena of the Pinetina. But it was born for dancing.
In the 1930s...
The Parco della Rimembranza is a small wood on Gaggiola hill, in the northern part of La Spezia, near the convent of San Francesco: about a hectare of tall trees, with a small pond, created as a memorial to those who died in World War...
The Parco del Colombaio is the green lung of La Spezia's western side, behind the Alberto Picco stadium, toward Buggi: a park full of tall trees, with a curiosity that soccer fans love.
The city's old 19th-century walls separate it from...
Piazza Giuseppe Verdi is the center of modern La Spezia: more a wide avenue than a square, among Liberty, Art Deco and eclectic buildings, with the Post Office Palace at the far end and, in front of it, the colored arches of the artist Daniel...
This welcoming and modernized square, with medieval origins, is now one of the most popular meeting points in the entire province of La Spezia. Its proximity to Via del Prione, the presence of several popular cafes, its renovated pavement, and...