ristorazione — La Spezia · Liguria
In the heart of La Spezia, a short walk from the port that has shaped centuries of trade and departures, the Antica Osteria dei Camalli keeps a living archive: recipes of Ligurian cuisine from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, many of them once thought lost, find their original form again here.
Cross the threshold and the name already tells a story: the camalli were the dockworkers of the port of La Spezia, men of hard labour and unpretentious taste who gave this city its character. The osteria (tavern) carries their name with pride, and is today recognised by Slow Food and recommended by the Le Routard 2026 guide, two signs that quality here has never been worn down by habit.
In the dining room, the menu reads like a document: every dish carries its date and its provenance. The Bruzzo di Triora — the oldest Italian cheese, already mentioned by Julius Caesar — comes from western Liguria; the amaretti of Sassello round out a pantry built with the same care as the recipes. The entire menu is also available gluten-free, with homemade bread.
From the kitchen come dishes that carry the memory of centuries: stoccafisso alla baucogne, born in Badalucco in the eighteenth century and enriched with amaretti in the nineteenth; the lasagna al tocco of the Alta Val di Trebbia, once a staple ration for wheat threshers; and gnocchi di prescinseua, made with their own Ligurian cheese and dressed with sugo di stuffo.
One dish at a time, the Antica Osteria dei Camalli returns to Liguria its rarest recipes: it is worth sitting down and discovering them one by one.
