La Spezia

Italy’s biggest Naval Base, La Spezia is a charming yet majorly undervalued port city in the Italian Riviera. It does however attract tourists from all over because of the fact that it functions as a base for those intending to see the five Cinque Terre villages. Comparatively more peaceful than the rest of the cities in Italy, the Ligurian locals of La Spezia are rustic and ingenuous folks, nothing like urban Italians. However, there actually is a lot that one can do in this largely unexplored city. There are a plethora of piazzas lined with numerous shops and restaurants and all of these lead up to the beautiful waterfront. A wide variety of authentic Italian street fare is out there for you to sample and these range from chickpea flour pancakes known as ‘farinatas’ to fried fish to a strange yet delicious amalgamation of waffles and churros. There is a little something for everyone―right from the gluttons and shopaholics to the bookworms and people-watchers.

Getting there: Hourly trains depart from Rome and get you to La Spezia in roughly 4 hours and you are expected to shell out 50 Euros for the trip. In order to avoid all the hassle and even save money, reserving your seats is always a wise idea. Visit the ItaliaRail or the Trenitalia websites in order to do so. However, some changing trains are ‘Regionale’ trains, which cannot be reserved and you therefore need to validate your tickets from the validation machines lining the stations prior to boarding the train