La Spezia Guide – About Us
Welcome to La Spezia Guide!
We moved to Italy a couple of years ago from sunny Australia. Embracing a loose plan of owning an “agritourismo” in Tuscany or Umbria, where we could welcome guests and host retreats.
We left our life behind, hoping our dream would unfold just like we’d imagined, but Italy revealed a different path that led us to La Spezia. A Ligurian town right on the doorstep of Cinque Terre, and close to Pisa and Florence.
So, Who Are We?
We are Justin, Lucille, and Cooper (our four-legged sidekick). You’ll see a fair bit of Cooper on the blog because he’s a happy travel companion, takes a handsome photo, and can virtually go anywhere with us around La Spezia. He’s even allowed in the Cinque Terre national park. Lucky him!
We are the creators of La Spezia Guide. A travel blog and directory to help visitors plan their trip to La Spezia, Cinque Terre, and Liguria.
Even before our move to Italy, we’d all traveled extensively, perhaps to almost 40 countries. Cooper alone has 13 countries under his belt!
So, we know what it’s like to travel and be on unfamiliar ground, but still wanting to do and see as much as possible.
What is La Spezia Guide?
Most tourists coming to La Spezia make a beeline for Cinque Terre. During the summer months there are thousands of people every day descending on the magical five lands. Everyone eager to see and experience Riomaggiore, Vernazza, Monterosso, Manarola, and Corniglia.
But now we live here, we’ve discovered that La Spezia has its own vibe and is a worthy tourist destination in its own right.
Buttressed between the mountains and the sea, we are fortunate to have easy access to serene natural beauty as well as a vibrant city.
And, because of the local trains, buses, and ferries, La Spezia is useful as a base to visit all of The Gulf of Poets, Cinque Terre, Pisa, and Florence.
With each new week, we meet friends and locals eager to share the beauty of their unique landscape, the tastes of the Ligurian specialty foods, and the charm of their local villages.
La Spezia, Cinque Terre (and the surrounding towns that form The Gulf of Poets) have been a pleasant surprise and have awoken us to this vibrant part of Italy.
Through La Spezia Guide we are able to shine a light on our new home and share why we have been drawn to this little corner of Italy.
Our Purpose
If you’re planning a trip to La Spezia, Cinque Terre, or The Gulf of Poets, our purpose is for the blog and listings in our directory to prove to be a valuable resource and that our advice and insider guides help to make your travel planning easier.
We also have two simple wishes:
We hope visitors coming to the area have the very best experience and want you to be inspired to venture beyond the “tourist traps”.
We want the local businesses and community that support the visitors and tourists to thrive.
Our blog is all authentic and carefully researched and we will tell it like it is. We take great care to remain impartial and only make genuine recommendations; like we would to a friend.
When you visit, if you happen to see us “out in the wild”, feel free to say hello. We also welcome your questions, travel stories, or photos in the comments section of our blog posts.
For now, wishing you happy travels or as they say in Italy, Buon viaggio!!
Justin, Lucille & Cooper
