La Spezia, Italy

Good morning from La Spezia!  Charlie captured this photo as we were coming into port about 7:30.

Here’s our location, if (like me) you’ve never heard of La Spezia—near the top of the “boot” of Italy. It’s the port closest to Florence. We opted out of all the excursions to Florence, because they all involve long bus rides and last a minimum of nine hours. We’d like to visit Florence when there’s sufficient time to really see it, so not this trip.  We will go into La Spezia if the rain stops.

For those of you playing along at home (and possibly gasping in horror at our food consumption rate), here are the photos from last night’s dinner in Coastal Kitchen. Angelo, our server, is getting to know our preferences—pretzel rolls, please! Everything pictured was delicious!

Spinach salad

Grilled octopus 

Poached lobster

Braised short ribs over polenta

Bittersweet chocolate praline tart with red wine sorbet

Now it’s the afternoon, and the rain did stop, so we made our way into La Spezia.  The free shuttle from the ship dropped us off in a lovely park, beautifully planted. There were also interesting art installations.

We enjoyed seeing the old buildings and imagining the lives of the people living there now.  

We found the market, which made Charlie want to rent an apartment and start cooking. 

We also ran across a statue of Richard Wagner, who composed the first opera, Das Rheingold,  in his Ring Cycle of four operas while living in La Spezia.

Wagner (left!)

We browsed in a few shops en route to a restaurant Charlie found online, but they weren’t open (despite what the website said).  Luckily, there was no shortage of interesting-looking lunch spots.  We chose this one, where we enjoyed some Prosecco while people-watching and waiting for our meal.

Here’s what we ordered, and you can probably guess who ordered what.  (Hint: if there are a lot of legs or tentacles, it wasn’t mine.)

Warm seafood salad

Side salad (huge)

Fried mixed seafood (note giant sardine in back)

Tagliatelle with tomato and basil 

It was all delicious, and the weather was perfect for an outdoor meal. Then we strolled back to the cruise bus stop along this nice walkway by the water.

Tonight we have an 8:30 show, so we’re hoping to stay awake until the end!