Hotels in La Spezia

When you begin looking for a place to stay in the Cinque Terre, you soon realize that this tiny collection of five villages gets quite booked up in the high season. Not only that, the prices on rooms has gone up over the years as the area has gotten increasingly popular. Rather than skip the picturesque villages altogether, however, you might consider staying in nearby La Spezia.
La Spezia is the nearest sizeable town to the Cinque Terre, just a bit further down the coast from Riomaggiore, and has regular train service to all of the Cinque Terre towns, so it’s not a bad homebase for a visit to this part of the Ligurian coast. What’s more, it’s often cheaper than the Cinque Terre, too.

La Spezia is a working city, home to one of Italy's main naval bases, and that's part of its appeal: ordinary shops, ordinary restaurants and ordinary prices, with none of the Cinque Terre crush in the evenings. Riomaggiore is less than ten minutes away by train, and in season boats leave from the harbor for Portovenere and the Cinque Terre villages.

Before you head out for the day, grab a slice of farinata, the thin chickpea flatbread that's sold all along this stretch of coast.

Here is a map of hotels in La Spezia, so you can see exactly where each one sits before you book.