Yahtzee!

The train ride from Cinque Terre to Rome required a stopover in La Spezia, a port city of just under 100,000 about 10 miles east of Manarola. We decided to get there early, store our luggage for a few hours and explore La Spezia before the three-and-a-half hour trip to Rome.

Turns out, La Spezia is the World Capital of Yachting. We know this because the city's "Blue Mile" nautical district is an easy walk from the train station, and there is a sign proclaiming it to be so. The Blue Mile includes shipyards of many of the world's leading yacht brands, such as Sanlorenzo, Ferretti, Baglietto, Fincantieri, Perini Navi, and Navale Michelini, just to toss out a few corporate names to make it seem like I know anything at all about yachts... which, in reality, I don't.

To accompany the yacht building, La Spezia also is a center of yacht maintenance, retrofitting, off-season storage and similar services.

There's a huge public-facing marina, then a bridge to a more exclusive backside of the marina where the big boats anchor. No security officials intercepted us as we wandered back there to have some tea, ogle a bit and remind ourselves that even if we could afford a superyacht, we still wouldn't get one. After all, I've had harsh words lately for the world's billionaires and trillionaire, and you should know what happened to Tanya McQuoid (played by Jennifer Coolidge) at the end of Season 2 of White Lotus.

By the numbers:

26% of the world's total yacht and superyacht production happens in La Spezia

14,000 marine industry specialists employed in La Spezia

15,507 steps, pretty impressive for a travel day

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