FOUR YEARS ago, we stopped in the Italian Port of La Spezia for our first time. In late 2022, we stopped there again. In both cases, we were on The Celebrity Edge. Last week, my post on my LightCentricPhotography Blog covered what I deem the main attraction here: Cinque Terre. To an extent, this blog is somewhat repetitive, but if you are a photographer, you may want to check out the LightCentric post, where I have added a few insights from a photographer's perspective for folks who want or plan to get there any time in the future. Our previous visits along this part of the so-called "Italian Riviera," were on Princess ships, both scheduled to make port in (somewhat) nearby Livorno. The first was our "aborted" cruise. On the second occasion, we indeed stopped in Livorno, at that time, Princess' designated port for Pisa and Florence.
CELEBRITY DESIGNATES La Spezia as their port for Pisa and Florence. In reality, neither port is particularly close to Florence (or Pisa, for that matter). Really, there are no ports close to Florence, as it is substantially inland from the Mediterranean Sea (some 50 miles from Livorno and nearly 90 miles from La Spezia). Yet the cruise lines continue to designate those cities as destinations on their "Riviera" cruises. Perhaps a bit disingenuously? I think so. Celebrity, especially, is guilty of this kind of subtly inaccurate advertising of its cruise itineraries. I don't see anything wrong with pointing out that these destinations can be reached from these ports, but maybe not "showcasing" them as part of the main itinerary (e.g., "La Spezia, For Florence and Pizza")? The ships make a day-stop at these places, often only 8 hours, plus or minus. From La Spezia, that means a minimum of 3 hours' drive time to these places. Passengers often seek to do both Pisa and Florence. Pretty difficult to do justice to this itinerary in a very short day. Yet reading on the many Facebook pages for Celebrity Cruises, it is common for passengers to posit just such a day (sometimes even wanting to add Cinque Terre too). They are often shocked to find out that the cities are so far from the port (though probably they should have done their homework - but in fairness, the cruise line advertising is misleading).
PISA IS an easily do-able excursion from Livorno (only about 15 miles). We did both Pisa and Florence and felt very rushed during our too short time in Florence, knowing we had already burned a couple hours in Pisa and had to be back to the ship. My "best" travel advice is to see Florence by land, and plan to stay at least overnight.
THE PORT of La Spezia is an industrial, cargo port. There is no accommodation for walking around the port itself, due primarily to security, and secondarily because of the distance from the cruise ship berths to the port entrance (about 1.5 miles), the only way is by shuttle bus. From the port entrance you can walk into the downtown or take a cab (another 1.5 miles to the rail station). I have walked to the rail station, but it is a bit of a hike. Cruise ships stopping in La Spezia appear to be mainly Celebrity, a couple of Royal Carribean, and a smattering of other, mostly European cruise lines. It appears that Livorno may be a more popular port for the other "mainstream" cruise lines.
AT THIS point it would be fair to ask why any cruise ships stop in La Spezia? My cynical answer is: port fees. But there is a better answer. There is - in my opinion - a spectacular reason to stop in La Spezia. It is the closest port to a wonderfully bucolic and picturesque region of Italy known as Cinque Terre. When I read of passengers plans to go to Florence from here, I think they might be missing the boat (possibly quite literally if they don't keep track of their time in Florence). Don't get me wrong. Florence is one of the premiere locations to visit in Italy. But it is just too far from the La Spezia port to do it justice. On the other hand, Cinque Terre is just minutes away. From the La Spezia main train station (a 5-minute taxi ride from the port), the first of the 5 villages of Cinque Terre is a 10-minute train ride. There is a commuter train that goes back and forth all day between La Spezia and the Cinque Terre villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterrosa al Mare. Time between stops is between 5 and 15 minutes. An all day (on and off as many times as you wish) was 18 euros in October of 2022. Hopefully, you can see from the photos here, Cinque Terre is a not-to-be missed destination that is easily accessible during the cruise ship day stop in La Spezia.
SADLY, IN my view, the cruise lines do not do a very good job of highlighting this. Cinque Terre is really the primary highlight of the La Spezia stop. In 2019, this kind of caught me by surprise. Being an avid photographer, I wish now that I had done my homework more diligently. By the time we reached there, I was aware of its splendid photography potential. What I didn't know was how easy it was to access it. Unfortunately, our day there was mostly cloudy with intermittent rain showers. We had met a group of fellow travelers, and the 6 of us decided to go ashore and see if we could make our way to Cinque Terre. Not knowing how easy and absolutely accessible the train was, we took a taxi to Manarola, which we had determined to be the best and most accessible of the 5 towns. The taxi was probably a mistake. By the nature of these 5 picturesque spots, they are all built into a steep mountainside, and there is no vehicular traffic down in the villages. Our taxi driver dropped us in a parking lot high above the village, and we (6 of us between mid-50s and on up) walked down the steep pathway. My knees!
WE LATER learned about the railroad. By the time we got all sorted (as our British friends would say), we really didn't have time to see more than Manarola. I did get some photographs but remained intrigued about the other villages. On return home I did more exhaustive research, determined to do a more thorough photo-excursion if we ever returned. When La Spezia turned up on our 2022 itinerary, I was ready. I informed my travel mates (most of whom are not early risers) that I would be getting off the ship as soon as we were cleared and heading to the train station. I would meet them "wherever and whenever" they got around. A couple years back we switched our mobile phone service to T-Mobile and one of our reasons what that we get free texting nearly worldwide - so it is easy for us to stay in communication. My research told me that I really wanted to concentrate on 3 of the 5 villages and that is what I did. After visiting Riomaggiore, I went again to Manarola, where I would eventually meet up with my group. But not before climbing to the top of the nearby mountain, and making a few shots from other points of view than what I had done in 2019. Ironically, none of them were any better than the standard "tourist" view.
AFTER JOINING the rest of the group, some of us continued on to Vernazza. My own "homework" suggested to me that the other two, while probably photogenic, weren't as good. Though it would certainly be possible, trying to photograph all 5 of the villages was more than I could accomplish this trip. Next time, I will explore them first.
IF YOU are on a cruise stopping in La Spezia, my strong advice to you is to make your life easy, and your views spectacular. Forget about other destinations and go to Cinque Terre. You won't regret it!
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[I will be absent for the next 3 weeks or so, as we leave on Tuesday for Japan and a 15-day cruise around the country. Of course we do these for our own fun and enlightenment, but this will be another entirely new ship and line for us: Holland America and it's Westerdam. This will give me a chance to scope out what is new and different about the HAL ships. Knowing a few of the things in store for us, we are excited to embark on this new adventure, and I am sure, I will have many new things to blog about on our return. As Arnold famously said: "I'll be back!"] 😀
