Via del Prione

Via del Prione is the principal street of La Spezia’s historic centre, known locally as the carugio drito, or “straight alley.” Shops, cafés and museums line the pedestrian route.

Why it matters

Via del Prione has served as a commercial and civic axis of the historic centre. A stone pulpit associated with the street was used by town criers to address public assemblies. Today, its museums, shops and cafés connect it with nearby market streets and the older lanes of the borough.

What to notice

The name is traditionally linked to the Genoese word for stone, referring to the stone pulpit from which town criers addressed public assemblies. The local name carugio drito means “straight alley,” distinguishing it from the surrounding network of lanes. Historical accounts record more than 35 shops, four bakeries and 14 warehouses along the street. Today the street is also associated with several cultural institutions: the Museo Civico Amedeo Lia occupies a former convent on the street, while the municipal portal and the national tourism board place the ethnographic museum, the diocesan museum in the restored oratory of San Bernardino and the seal museum within a few steps of the route.

Context and history

The street took shape with the medieval borough of La Spezia, and its role as marketplace and gathering place has never lapsed — the official page speaks of nearly six centuries of continuous bustle, from merchants and carts to today's shopkeepers and students. That longevity gave the street a place in cultural history: the municipal portal recounts a local story that Richard Wagner found inspiration for the prelude to Das Rheingold in the street’s activity during his stay in the city. The shopping identity hardened over the generations as botteghe, bakeries and warehouses multiplied, and it survived the transformations that reshaped the rest of the city after the arsenal turned La Spezia into a naval-industrial town. The street remains an important part of the historic centre, linking its medieval lanes with later urban development.