Viareggio

Refined Viareggio is also the Carnival town. Every year in the spring, streets and squares are decorated with flags and masks; for four weeks, paper-pulp giants appear everywhere, even along the seafront. Viale Margherita is delightful: it runs along the lovely fine-sand beach, its buildings in Art Nouveau style, and is home to boutique windows with the most prestigious names in Italian fashion and elegant outdoor cafés. Viareggio is a joyful place, where passion reigns until the break of dawn. You cannot miss a walk along Viale dei Tigli as far as the Torre del Lago and the home of the composer Giacomo Puccini. The landscape is evocative, with its combination of hills and green pine groves blending with the blue of the sea. The sea and the traditional bathing establishments complete a marvellous itinerary. Viareggio is refined and happy at the same time, because it is the capital of Versilia, the jewel of the Tyrrhenian Sea.