La Spezia
1
5.9
- proper noun
- Many tourists use La Spezia as a gateway to the Cinque Terre villages.
Examples
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The train to La Spezia offers stunning views of the Italian Riviera along the way.
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The harbor of La Spezia is bustling with activity all year round.
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I visited La Spezia last summer.
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Have you ever been to La Spezia?
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Many tourists use La Spezia as a gateway to the Cinque Terre villages.
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The harbor of La Spezia is bustling with activity all year round.
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The train to La Spezia offers stunning views of the Italian Riviera along the way.
Surface Forms
Morphology
La + Spezia
La Spezia is a proper place name (toponym) whose specific sense 'a port city in Liguria' is lexicalized and cannot be inferred from the parts. The constituents ('La' and 'Spezia') do not transparently signal 'port' or location to a B1 learner (one is a definite article in Romance languages and the other is a name), so the meaning is not derivable from the words alone.
Etymology
La Spezia may come from the old word spezia, meaning 'spices'. The town was once a small port where spices and goods arrived by ship, so the name stayed and now refers to the port city.