La Spezia

Map of La Spezia (German, late 19th-century).

La Spezia and its province have been settled since prehistoric times. In Roman times the most important centre was Luni, not far from Sarzana. As the capital of the short-lived Niccolò Fieschi Signoria in the period between 1256 and 1273, La Spezia was inevitably linked with Genoese vicissitudes. After the fall of the Republic of Genoa, an independent state until 1797, La Spezia grew, developed and changed, though along lines similar to Liguria's capital Genoa. This Ligurian influence can still be seen in the urban layout as well as in the types of buildings and decorations. This is notable in the carrugio, the narrow street that divides the Old Town into two. It is called Via del Prione, taking its name from the pietrone or large stone, in local dialect prione, where public announcements were once read out.

Walking landwards from the sea it is possible to see partly hidden, but still evident, traces of history: engraved stones, capitals, and portals in fourteenth century sandstone, double lancet windows vaguely reminiscent of the future renaissance style of mannerism, baroque pediments, and decorations similar to those adorning the portals of the palaces once belonging to the Doria family and the Princes of Massa.

La Spezia developed substantially after 1861 when the great naval arsenal there was commissioned by the Royal government. In September 1943, after the Italian capitulation to the Allies, it was the departure port for the Italian Navy when it was ordered to steam into British hands at Malta. The Germans arrived too late to stop the departure of the fleet. During the war Italian troopships also left from La Spezia, including the Kaiser Franz Josef, a trans-Atlantic liner launched in Trieste in 1911 for the Austrian Lloyd company, which Italy had confiscated in 1919. It was sunk in La Spezia harbour in 1944.

After the liberation, La Spezia became the point of departure for survivors from Nazi concentration camps. From the summer of 1945 to the spring of 1948 more than 23,000 Jewish displaced persons managed to leave Italy clandestinely for the Palestine Mandate. After lengthy vicissitudes, the ships Fede, Fenice, and Komemiut managed to evacuate everyone from the Golfo di La Spezia, to the extent that on Israeli maps, La Spezia is called Shàar Zion , in Hebrew “Gateway to Zion”.

La Spezia has a borderline humid subtropical (Cfa) and Mediterranean climate (Csa), since only one month receives less than 40 millimetres (1.6 in). The city enjoys hot summers, chilly damp winters and very changeable and rainy autumns and springs. The average temperatures of the coldest month (January) are 4 °C (39 °F) minimum and 11 °C (52 °F) maximum. In the hottest month (July) they are 20 °C (68 °F) minimum and 29 °C (84 °F) maximum. Average annual precipitation is 1,314 millimetres (51.7 in), more than twice that in London. Snow is extremely uncommon. Heavy snowfalls are exceptional events: only in 1985 was a snowfall of more than 50 centimetres (20 in) recorded. Another big snowfall occurred during the night of 18 December 2009, with approximately 25 centimetres (9.8 in) of snow and temperatures as low as −7.4 °C (18.7 °F) in the following nights.

In winter nights, if the sky is clear, temperatures may fall below zero, usually reaching about −2 to −4 °C (28 to 25 °F). Conversely, in summer, especially during sunny days, the temperature can easily exceed 30 °C (86 °F), and sometimes it reaches 35 °C (95 °F). Furthermore, the sensation of heat in summer is increased by the high humidity.

Because of its topography, the city is not exposed to winds from the north, which lap western Liguria, but to those from the southeast. These may bring heavy rain and they can reach 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph), in rare cases causing the blocking of the port. The only northern wind reaching the city is the north-eastern Grecale, common during incursions of Arctic air, when the cold air flowing over the warmer Tyrrhenian sea triggers the formation of low pressures, draining the colder and heavier air trapped in the Po Valley, behind the Apennine Mountains.

Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione, 1862.

• Alessia Aquilani (born 1967), known as Alexia, singer
• Giulio Cappelli (1911–1995), football player
• Toto Cutugno (born 1943), singer
• Leonardo D'Imporzano (born 1982), freediver and journalist
• Gian Paolo Dulbecco (born 1941), painter
• Rinaldo Fiumi (born 1923), football player
• Giancarlo Giannini (born 1942), actor
• Ettore Gracis (1915–1992), conductor
• Markus Hinterhäuser (born 1958), Austrian pianist and cultural manager
• Virginia Oldoini (1837–1899), countess of Castiglione
• Eros Pagni (born 1939), actor
• Gaetano Pesce (born 1939), architect designer
• Arrigo Petacco (1929–2018), writer, historian and journalist
• Alessandro Petacchi (born 1974), cyclist
• Lorenzo Richelmy (born 1990), actor
• Gino Rossetti (1904–1992), football player
• Giacinto Scelsi (1905–1988), composer
• Alberto Sorrentino (1916–1994), actor
• Sauro Tomà (1925–2018), football player

Today, La Spezia is the chief Italian naval base and arsenal and the base for a navigation school. It is also a commercial port, with shipyards and industries producing machinery, metal products, and refined petroleum.

Since 2002, a university named G. Marconi has had its headquarters in La Spezia.

The Distretto Ligure delle Tecnologie Marine (DLTM) is a research hub in La Spezia, Italy, focused on blue economy. It's a partnership of more than 20 entities including Fincantieri, Leonardo S.p.A., Intermarine, Rina Service, Consorzio Tecnomar, Autorità portuale, CNR, Camera di Commercio and University of Genoa[7] and one of the five of innovation and research hub in Liguria [8]

Both the "G. Marconi" pole and the DLTM are hosted in the old building of the Bruno Falcomatà hospital since December 2019.[9]

In 2020, the local football club, Spezia Calcio, promoted to the Serie A for the first time in their history.[10]

La Spezia is twinned with:

• Toulon, France
• Bayreuth, Germany
• Vallejo, California, USA[11]

• La Spezia–Rimini Line
• Spezia Calcio 1906
• Stadio Alberto Picco

• Clerici, Carlo Alfredo; Pesaresi, Piero (August–September 1999). "Le difese costiere della Spezia". Uniformi e Armi: 48–53.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to La Spezia.

• Satellite picture by Google Maps
• A Path to Lunch—Archive and blog centered in Lunigiana/La Spezia. Walks, buses, food, history
• "Spezia" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.