Museum visits · La Spezia · Italy
The civic museums of La Spezia
from Amedeo Lia's picture gallery to the CAMeC's twentieth century to the statue stelae in the castle, a day on the civic museum card
In La Spezia the civic museums sit almost entirely inside the pedestrian centre, and three of the four that fill the day stand on via del Prione or a few steps off it. You start at the Museo Amedeo Lia, over twelve hundred works given to the city by a private collector, housed in the former convent of San Francesco di Paola; the afternoon belongs to the CAMeC, reopened in October 2024 after its refit, and anyone still on their feet climbs to the Castello di San Giorgio for the Lunigiana statue stelae and the view over the gulf from the ramparts. None of the four is crowded on weekdays: you can stand ten minutes in front of a painting with nobody pushing past. The civic museum card costs 14 euros and pays for itself on the second entry.
Getting there
- The ATCMP motorhome area is in via Valdilocchi, outside the centre: the museums are all inside it, between via del Prione and piazza Cesare Battisti
- Bus lines S and L run between the centre and the motorhome area, and it is about 850 metres on foot from the stop to the area
- Museo Lia, CAMeC and the ethnographic museum are within walking distance of one another without leaving the old centre, which is pedestrian there
- The Castello di San Giorgio sits on a hill and is reached on foot from the centre, but a lift saves the last stretch
Practical information
Duration a full day for the Museo Lia, the CAMeC and the Castello di San Giorgio; the ethnographic museum asks for another half day
Price 72 hour card 14 euros for five museums, single tickets from 4 to 10 euros
Suitable for families with children; the CAMeC is spread over several floors and is accessible, and at the castle the lift avoids the final climb
Booking not needed for a self guided visit; single tickets and the card can also be bought online at museidellaspezia.it
Contacts
Where it is
La Spezia · Liguria
You set off from
Notes
- Museo Lia: Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-18:00, ticket office closes at 17:30; closed Mondays except Easter Monday, and on 1 January, 15 August and 25 December
- Museo Lia, tickets: 9 euros full, 8 euros reduced for groups of 7 to 25, ages 14 to 18 and university students, special reduced 6 euros from age 70 up, ages 6 to 13 and school groups from outside the province
- CAMeC: Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-19:00, first Friday of the month until 22:00, closed Mondays and 25 December; telephone 0187 727530, info@camec.sp.it
- CAMeC, tickets: permanent collection 10 euros full and 5 euros reduced for under 26 and over 65, free for under 18 and for residents of the province of La Spezia; with the temporary exhibition 15 euros full, 8 reduced, 5 for residents; on the first Sunday of the month entry is 2 euros
- Castello di San Giorgio: 6 euros full, 5 euros reduced, special reduced 4 euros for school groups from outside the province; telephone 0187 751142, museo.sangiorgio@comune.sp.it
- The castle's hours change with the season: the autumn timetable is Monday to Friday 9:30-12:30 and 14:00-17:00, Saturday and Sunday 10:00-17:00, closed Tuesdays, and it is worth checking on the official site before setting off
- Ethnographic museum: Thursday to Saturday 10:00-12:30 and 16:00-19:00, Sunday 10:30-18:00, closed Monday to Wednesday
- You still read the Museo Lia given at via del Prione 244 for 5 euros with children free: the civic museums site gives number 234 and 9 euros full
- At the Lia the first floor is almost all picture gallery, from fourteenth century panels to the Venetian Renaissance; the second holds illuminations on parchment from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, sculpture, goldwork, rock crystal, ivories and a self portrait by Pontormo
- The CAMeC holds the Cozzani collection, over 1200 works of the twentieth century avant gardes, and the Battolini collection; the Premio del Golfo room, for the national painting prize devised in 1933 by Marinetti and Fillia, shows work by Carla Accardi, Renato Birolli and Emilio Vedova among others
- At the castle the Ubaldo Formentini civic archaeological museum tells La Spezia before the nineteenth century Arsenal: Lunigiana statue stelae, Roman fragments, coins, everyday objects
- The ethnographic museum has been in the fifteenth century former oratory of San Bernardino da Siena since 2005, which it shares with the sacred art collections of the diocesan museum; objects from the Lunigiana, crockery, farm tools, textiles, costumes and a section on loom weaving, plus material from Oceania, New Guinea, the Americas, China, Japan and Africa
- Left out of the day are the naval technical museum, the Museo del Sigillo, with the most complete collection of seals in the world from the fourth millennium BC to today, and the national transport museum
- The way back to the motorhome area is the same S and L buses, or by bicycle
