[6] As the capital of the short-lived Niccolò Fieschi Signoria in the period between 1256 and 1273, La Spezia was inevitably linked with Genoese vicissitudes.

[7] La Spezia developed substantially after 1861 when the great naval arsenal there was commissioned by the Royal government.

During the war Italian troopships also left from La Spezia, including the Kaiser Franz Josef, a trans-Atlantic liner launched in Trieste in 1911 for the Austrian Lloyd company, which Italy had confiscated in 1919.

From the summer of 1945 to the spring of 1948 more than 23,000 Jewish displaced persons managed to leave Italy clandestinely for the Palestine Mandate.

The city enjoys hot summers, chilly damp winters and very changeable and rainy autumns and springs.

These may bring heavy rain and they can reach 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph), in rare cases causing the blocking of the port.

The Distretto Ligure delle Tecnologie Marine (DLTM) is a research hub in La Spezia, Italy, focused on blue economy.

It's a partnership of more than 20 entities including Fincantieri, Leonardo S.p.A., Intermarine, Rina Service, Consorzio Tecnomar, Autorità portuale, CNR, Camera di Commercio and University of Genoa[14] and one of the five of innovation and research hub in Liguria.