stampaA Town in Expansion
Just as La Spezia needed to expand in the 19th century in order to provide housing essential for the people who came here for the great Arsenal – resulting in building the Umberto I working district – the city has expanded towards the east from the post-war period on and especially over the last ten years, with a concentration of public departments, shops and businesses in the direction of the densely populated Migliarina district.
The great Law Courts by Ignazio Gardella stands in the eastern districts where, as we said, public departments are being increasingly concentrated and it is not far from the Parco della Maggiolina green belt, it represents an important period in the new urban housing schemes. In fact, only completed in 1994 after lengthy construction works lasting for years, it solidly and compactly represents institutional stability: the La Spezia Law Courts together with the Genoese Faculty of Architecture and Carlo Felice Theatre always in Genoa, built with Rossi and Sibilla, are proof of the Ligurian works in the Milanese architect’s catalogue.
The Kennedy shopping centre, built not far from the Law Courts by the Gregotti firm, is useful for defining a part of the city that up until recent times had no clearly defined urban planning scheme: even though the series of shops and offices face outwards they actually converge onto a large square, creating an open and closed space at the same time, private but public, not only affording ample space for business activities but also for organizing social events and entertainments.
The intelligent operation along viale San Bartolomeo on the eastern coast of the Gulf, where the areas taken up by port and shipyard activities are landmarks in the coastline landscape towards San Terenzo and Lerici, is not dissimilar. Here the Porto Turistico Lotti is the brilliantly successful idea conceived by Luciano Lotti, who built the marina by converting his own demolition shipyards, complete with shops and offices and catering services, facilities for sports and equipped with a conference and meeting room. The selection and quantity of greenery planted, its position opening out onto the view of the hills on the western side and the huge expanse of sea are all characteristics revealing and designing this end part of the Gulf, a private place open to public activities.
The university campus is still another reconstruction, in this case of military structures, standing up high over the city. There where the Naval traffic lights are installed and where the bastion, a fortified work supporting St. George castle, once stood there, is now a site for university activities which, together with Pleasure Craft Design School in via Ugo Botti, not far from Porto Lotti, founded at the beginning of the 90’s, comprises the complex organized for post-graduate courses against agreements stipulated with Genoa and Pisa universities.
Speziaexpò was inaugurated in 2007, the new exhibition centre at the entrance to the city for those coming from the motorway junction, on the site originally set aside for the Morello mills. The structure measuring 5,500 square meters of exhibition space was built by the La Spezia Centro Fieristico exhibition centre, which also runs it and was designed by the Mma firm with capacity to hold important events.
The La Spezia gastronomic tradition, based both on the seafaring community and on farmer’s experience, still offers authentic dishes, bearing evidence of memories long gone by.
The most typical recipes of local culinary art are born from the unison between sea and land and are linked with the Mediterranean tradition but exalted by unmatched fragrance and perfume.
Basil, rosemary, thyme, lemons and olive oil are just a few of the unmistakable expressions of this small Eden of Italian flavours.
Mes ciua and Fainà (farinata) are by far the most typical dishes originating from the land in La Spezia.
Mes ciua is a soup made of chickpeas, beans, dried broad beans, grass-pea and spelt, with uncertain origin but perhaps something to do with the economic difficulties experienced by the farmers astride the XVIII and XIX century, or, as some experts believe, dates back to as far as three thousand years before Christ. In any case Mesc iua is undoubtedly the typical dish of La Spezia cooking, made of “poor” ingredients but exalted by the flavour of black ground pepper and the rich olive oil from the Riviera, accompanied by good wine from the surrounding hills. It is a well thought out recipe both for the proportions and for cooking it and there is nothing like it anywhere else in Italy.
The fragrance of farinata, a crusty piece of pastry made from chickpea flour and cooked over a wooden fire, coming from the bakeries along the city carrugi still fills the air today.
The origin of this dish is a point of controversy but it seems to have come from upper Tuscany, even though it can now be considered a typical recipe of the La Spezia culinary tradition, and has a quite different consistency and taste from the similar Tuscany dish.
Flavours from the land can also be found in sea food dishes, merging into a triumph of tastes such as for example stuffed mussels: a tasty mixture enclosed between the two mussel shells.
There are numerous fish dishes chiefly using anchovies, dried salted cod and mussels.
They can be enjoyed fried, stuffed, steamed, marinated (a scabegio), or preserved under salt or olive oil.
Stockfish and squid are instead prepared stewed with flavouring.
A special mention should be given for whitebait fritters, practically not to be found anywhere now as fishing them has been strictly limited.