La Spezia is a naval city at the head of a deep bay, and it is not trying to charm you. About eighty-eight thousand people live here, the Italian navy has a major base on the waterfront, and the port handles container ships and ferries. That makes it a practical place: big enough for fuel, garages, banks and a proper supermarket, and the starting point for the Cinque Terre, which lie just along the coast to the west. Many travellers pass through here without stopping, but the town has a pleasant seafront promenade and a market with excellent produce.
The bay is called the Gulf of Poets, because Byron and Shelley both lived around it, and Shelley drowned off the coast near Lerici in 1822. Lord Byron swam from Portovenere across to Lerici in homage. Portovenere, at the western tip of the bay, has a Gothic church on a rock above the sea, and it is part of a UNESCO listing with the Cinque Terre. A short ride south from La Spezia, you can reach the headland and Le Grazie, a small village on the bay with a sheltered harbour and old monastery.
For a rider, La Spezia is the gateway to the Ligurian coast. The roads out of the city climb at once into steep hills covered in olive groves and terraced vineyards, and the views over the water are wide. The corners are tight, the roads often narrow, and the surface has patches. The coast is steep and rocky, and the old villages cling to cliffs above the sea, with little parking. In summer, traffic is heavy and parking is scarce, so ride early.
Eat here, if you can. Liguria has its own cuisine: trofie pasta with pesto, focaccia, farinata made of chickpea flour, and anchovies from the sea. Pesto was born here, in a region with fragrant basil and Ligurian olive oil. The best seasons are spring and autumn, when the light is clear and the sea is calm, and an early start gives you the coast to yourself before the day-trippers appear. Fill the tank in town, as the coast beyond is thin on stations.