La Spezia is a town in Liguria in the northwestern region of Italy.

La Spezia is one of the four provinces of Liguria and has a population of about 91,391 inhabitants. La Spezia's inhabitants are called Spezzini. The area of this Ligurian town is of 51.4 square kilometers.

In terms of population, La Spezia is the second city in the Liguria region, just after Genoa. Located roughly midway between Genoa and Pisa, on the Ligurian Sea, it is one of the main Italian military and commercial harbors and a major Italian Navy base. A significant railway junction, it is notable for its museums, for the Palio del Golfo rowing race, and for railway and boat links with the Cinque Terre.

It's a beautiful city with a beautiful sea that blends with the nearby mountains. A good overlap of the sky, earth, and water. The streets are full of bergamot trees, and next to the beach there are really beautiful gardens with weird plants, absolutely well maintained.

Climate

La Spezia has a borderline humid subtropical (Cfa) and Mediterranean climate (Csa) since only one month receives less than 40 millimeters (1.6 in). The city enjoys hot summers, chilly damp winters and very changeable and rainy autumns and springs. The average temperatures of the coldest month (January) are 4 °C (39 °F) minimum and 11 °C (52 °F) maximum. In the hottest month (July) they are 20 °C (68 °F) minimum and 29 °C (84 °F) maximum. Average annual precipitation is 1,314 millimeters (51.7 in), more than twice that in London. Snow is extremely uncommon. Heavy snowfalls are exceptional events: only in 1985 was a snowfall of more than 50 centimeters (20 in) recorded. Another big snowfall occurred during the night of 18 December 2009, with approximately 25 centimeters (9.8 in) of snow and temperatures as low as −7.4 °C (18.7 °F) in the following nights.

In winter nights, if the sky is clear, temperatures may fall below zero, usually reaching about −2 to −4 °C (28 to 25 °F). Conversely, in summer, especially during sunny days, the temperature can easily exceed 30 °C (86 °F), and sometimes it reaches 35 °C (95 °F). Furthermore, the sensation of heat in summer is increased by the high humidity.

Because of its topography, the city is not exposed to winds from the north, which lap western Liguria, but to those from the southeast. These may bring heavy rain and they can reach 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph), in rare cases causing the blocking of the port. The only northern wind reaching the city is the north-eastern Grecale, common during incursions of Arctic air, when the cold air flowing over the warmer Tyrrhenian sea triggers the formation of low pressures, draining the colder and heavier air trapped in the Po Valley, behind the Apennine Mountains.