beaches near la spezia?

[Adsmama]

Hello, we are living in Germany with the US Military and going on the DCL in August, stopping in La Spezia. We really are not keen on the florence/pisa stuff bc it seems like such a hassle to drive 5 hours round trip to florence for 3-4 hours of sightseeing. We hope to just drive down to Florence later on our own time. Plus we have a baby and think Rome the previous day might just do us in! LOL. I am looking for suggestions of easy little walks or cheap cab rides around La Spezia. Is it worth just wandering around town? Any public beaches nearby? Thank you all so much in advance!

[euro cruiser]

Because of the sea wall, you need to get out of the bay/port area of La Spezia for a beach. Just south near Lerici are beautiful beaches at San Terenzo and a beach called Venere Azzurra, that even has its own web site: http://www.venereazzurra.com/index.php

[Adsmama]

Is this walkable or is there a train or anything near to wear the boat might be tendered?

[kuldalai]

Don't know if you realize it or not but La Spezia is the gateway town to one of Italy's great tourist attractions - The Cinque Terre a series of five (5) villages clinging precariously to the Mediteranean Coastline . All the villages are inaccessible by car, and best accessed by train from La Spezia . Local Regional trains link La Spezia to each of the five villages running sort of hourly (rather Italian like at roughly hourly, but not strictly hourly frequencies.) You can buy a Cinque Terre Daily Rail Pass for around 5 Euros that covers travel from ; La Spezia to all 5 towns and return to La Spezia.

From La Spezia heading North up the Coast the town order is Riomaggiore, Manarola (20), Corniglia (45), Vernazza (90), Monterosso (90). You can walk between the towns along the Coastline, but it is pretty steep and rugged in places but well signed. The walk is only for the young fit and able, and certainly not with a baby or young children . (Numbers in brackets are walking times between adjoining towns.) Train travel times between adjoining towns is around 5 mins, so La Spezia to Monterosso like 30 minutes max by train . This part of the Italian Coastline is just magical and one really needs a week there , not 1 day . Don't miss it .

[euro cruiser]

Is this walkable or is there a train or anything near to wear the boat might be tendered?

You can't walk it, but there is a bus. You can see the time tables and information on tickets, etc. here: http://www.atcesercizio.it/index.php?lang=en

[Adsmama]

Don't know if you realize it or not but La Spezia is the gateway town to one of Italy's great tourist attractions - The Cinque Terre a series of five (5) villages clinging precariously to the Mediteranean Coastline . All the villages are inaccessible by car, and best accessed by train from La Spezia . Local Regional trains link La Spezia to each of the five villages running sort of hourly (rather Italian like at roughly hourly, but not strictly hourly frequencies.) You can buy a Cinque Terre Daily Rail Pass for around 5 Euros that covers travel from ; La Spezia to all 5 towns and return to La Spezia.

From La Spezia heading North up the Coast the town order is Riomaggiore, Manarola (20), Corniglia (45), Vernazza (90), Monterosso (90). You can walk between the towns along the Coastline, but it is pretty steep and rugged in places but well signed. The walk is only for the young fit and able, and certainly not with a baby or young children . (Numbers in brackets are walking times between adjoining towns.) Train travel times between adjoining towns is around 5 mins, so La Spezia to Monterosso like 30 minutes max by train . This part of the Italian Coastline is just magical and one really needs a week there , not 1 day . Don't miss it .

How do we get to the train station from the place where the cruise ship will be? We are open to anything, just did not want to do the florence trip and did not realize what else was out there worth doing.

[GSPLover]

City bus, walk or a cab. It will not be that far. For more detailed info (and photos) on Cinque Terre, go to http://www.ftroute.com/cinque.cfm

[slidergirl]

When I was in the Cinque Terre last month, my friend and I met a couple who was on the DCL cruise. They were taking the train around CT. If you really want to do a beach, take the others' recs. But, you would be missing out on a beautiful part of Italy...

I do know that La Spezia is a tender port. The train station isn't that many blocks from the Med. I wouldn't imagine it taking longer than maybe 15 minutes to walk to the station.

[kuldalai]

La Spezia is a fairly small place, and given the rugged coastline it will be tender port . It will only be a very short taxi ride from the landing to the Railway Station .

BEACHES : Small sandy beach at Vernazza, two sandy beaches at Monterosso, and there are pebble beaches near Riomaggiore & Corniglia .

Swimming is not possible at Corniglia.

 

Further Cinque Terre tourist info here :

 

http://wikitravel.org/en/Cinque_Terre

[euro cruiser]

As others have noted, there are lovely views and some good beaches in Cinque Terre, but if a beach is your goal, I would head south, away from CT, not into it. Cinque Terre will be absurdly crowded in August ... so if you don't have a burning desire to see it, head toward one of the beaches south of La Spezia and not into the inferno.

[samavarcruiser]

Viareggio

 

http://www.webtourist.net/italy/viareggio/tourist-information.phtml