At the end of 2013 I was in La Spezia for New Years with my husband’s family and my mum. This is obviously not the ideal time to visit La Spezia, but nonetheless we had some days with nice weather and I discovered interesting things you can do apart from going to the beach!
If you are in La Spezia when it is raining or in winter, don’t worry as there are a few museums in La Spezia that are worth seeing. I imagine they would also be a good way to escape the heat for a few hours in summer.
We visited a whole bunch of them using a combined entrance ticket. It costs €12 and gives you access to most museums in La Spezia for 3 consecutive days. It is a big saving over the individual entrances which cost a total of €25.50!
My favourite museum is the Museo del Castello (Castello di San Giorgio). It is an archaeological museum located on a hill overlooking the city centre of La Spezia. There is a nice collection of Roman and pre-Roman artefacts from the surrounding area. However, what makes this museum really worth it, is the view you get of the city and the sea.
If you are more of an art lover, then Museo Civico Amadeo Lia is for you. It is the biggest museum in La Spezia and it has a beautiful collection of 18th century Italian art. My mum and I enjoyed wandering around here for a morning. I particularly liked the collection of illuminated manuscripts and codexes.
If modern art is more your thing, you may wish to visit the CAMeC Museum which houses permanent and temporary collections of modern art. We didn’t get around to seeing it that winter, but I am keeping it in mind for future winter visits.
We also visited two smaller museums located in the city centre in a couple of hours on a rainy afternoon. The first one was the Museo civico etnografico Giovanni Podenzana (La Spezia’s ethnographic museum) which specialises in cultural artefacts from the region of Liguria. Attached to this museum is the Museo diocesano. Occupying the first floor, it houses a collection of local religious artefacts.
The last museum we visited was the Museo del sigillo. It is a very small museum that specialises in seals. It used to be private collection of seals that has now been made public. Some say probably the largest collection in the world. It wasn’t my favourite, but it was the only museum left on our combined ticket that we hadn’t visited.