Trattoria da Dino – Farinata & Mesciüa
Tucked into a side street off Via del Prione, Trattoria da Dino is the kind of place where the menu is handwritten daily and the owner will gently steer you away from ordering wrong. It is the definitive address in La Spezia for two hyper-local dishes you will find almost nowhere else in Italy.
The Two Dishes You Must Order
Farinata della Spezia is the local variant of the Ligurian chickpea pancake, baked thicker than the Genoese version and often topped with rosemary or stracchino cheese; at Da Dino it emerges from a wood-burning oven in a blackened copper pan and is eaten scalding hot.
Mesciüa is a humble soup of chickpeas, borlotti beans, spelt and olive oil that was historically made by port workers who gathered spilled grains from the dockside warehouses — today it is a protected Slow Food Presidium dish and tastes far more complex than its ingredients suggest.
Order a carafe of the house Vermentino to wash everything down; the wine is sourced from the Colli di Luni DOC just inland and has a saline mineral edge that mirrors the sea air outside.
The Neighbourhood & When to Go
Via del Prione is La Spezia's main pedestrian artery, lined with independent shops and bars, and Da Dino sits just off it — close enough to find easily, far enough to feel like a discovery.
Lunch is the main event here, as it is across Liguria; the kitchen closes firmly at 2:30 p.m. and the best dishes sell out, so aim to sit down by 12:30 p.m.
The room seats around 30 people, tables are close together, and conversation flows between strangers — this is not a place for a quiet romantic dinner but an excellent place to feel like a local for an hour.
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