Viareggio

Viareggio is a vibrant city of 60,000 and one of the most famous and traditional seaside resorts in Tuscany. The wide, endless (10 Km long) white sand beaches feature over 100 bathing establishments, offering visitors a wide choice for relaxation and entertainment. The excellent cuisine and the exciting night-life with its well-known "Versilian" discos, dancings, baleras -all contribute to make Viareggio a favorite yearlong holiday resort.

A visit to Viareggio means meeting discriminating Italians of all ages and enjoying the seafood specialties of Tuscany. Viareggio is the ideal holiday resort for all who love sunshine, the sea and enjoying themselves. Boredom is something youll never experience in Viareggio!

Viareggio is also famous for its liberty period architecture as seen in many stores, hotels and villas. The city lies astride the Burlamacca Canal, which runs from the inland area directly to the sea and divides the whole area into two parts. At the end of the canal, the port enjoys a great deal of commercial, industrial, and tourist activity with a colorful harbor full of incredible yachts and pleasure boats, shipyards. North of the canal, a 3 km- long promenade (Passeggiata Margherita) with superb shops, cinemas and theatres extends till the next town of Lido di Camaiore. The main jetty runs alongside the Burlamacca Canal and extends almost one kilometer into the open sea; walking along it, observing the beach, the coast line up to the Cinque Terre and the Apuan Alps it is especially relaxing and beautiful.

But Viareggio is not just fashionable spots: it also possesses a prominent dimension of natural beauty. Surrounded by the hillside, the Apuan Alps and the lake of Massaciuccoli, the city has two vast pinewoods, ideal for refreshing walks and picnics. One is located in the urban center and is known by the name of Pineta di Ponente. It has all the characteristics of a public park. The other is called Pineta di Levante. It begins at the docks and extends for 6 kilometers beyond Torre del Lago Puccini and as far as Pisa. It is still in its natural state with luxuriant vegetation and thick undergrowth. The Viale dei Tigli, a magnificent panoramic avenue, crosses it in its entire length.

Viareggio is the capital of the Italian Carnival. It had its beginning at the end of the nineteenth century and is now a unique tradition, with its masked procession that witnesses the parade of giant paper-march8 that occurs on five occasions, between the beginning of February and the middle of March and is the most famous in Italy.

Viareggio is also a city of artists: in addition to the craftsmen that create the Carnival marche` painters and musicians abound! Past residents of Viareggio include names like the poet Lorenzo Viani, the composer Giacomo Puccini, the writer Mario Tobino, the painter Maccari and many others, less famous but not less creative.

History of Viareggio

A millennium ago, the territory were now lies the town of Viareggio was occupied by the sea, and the inner lands were soaked by stagnant waters which constituted great and large swamps overran by insects and deadly mosquitos. In 1117 the Lucca peolpe, after many disputes with the Pisan and helped by the Genoese, built a masonry castle with a cylindrical keep higher than 40 meters, protected by a lower wall. For the Lucca people was important having that tract of coast, since it constituted a steady landing place for importation and commerce. The fortress took the name of Castrum of via regia. Around 1460, the Lucca people decided to clean the swamps near the coast, giving the sad work to engineer Lionello. In this way, the landing place could change into a harbour. A note of that period reports that, to anyone who took part to the cleaning of the swamps, the lucca state gave as reward a part of the land. The following political events, the Pisan no more in struggle with Genoa but with Florence, suggested the Lucca people to strenghten the harbour, and in particular to consolidate the course of the Burlamacca canal. Was instituted the office of the custom house from where goods could be controlled. In 1550 the Lucca Senate decreted a new fortification by the canal in substitution of the ancient castle; it was the still standing tower today called "of Matilde", strong and mighty construction, real symbol of the town and fulcrum of the history of Viareggio.

In 1601 Viareggio was really a town and was declared "portofranco". On March 10, 1617, Viareggio was elected chief town of the Coastal Vicariate, which included small villages on the nearby hills. In 1700 the town, by this time expanded, was elevated to commune with the right to assemble a council. The opening of the first bathing establishment is approximately in 1823, when the town could count on about 4000 inhabitants, mostly dedicated to fishing, nautical construction, and agriculture.

Maria Luisa di Borbone created the street layout of viale dei Tigli; with this road this she, from her country house in the eastern pinewood, could easily reach the town.It was still the duchess who imposed separated entrances to bathing establishments for the two sexes; being a very catholic and scrupulous woman, she thought it was unseemly allowing bathing to men and women in the same tract of seashore. On March 15, 1860, Lucca and Viareggio joined the Italian Kingdom with a popular plebiscite, thanks to 98% of the agreements. About 1870, new bathing establishments were inaugurated, in addition to Dori and Nereo, and were called Nettuno and Balena. In the beginning of 1900 there was a good tourist-bathing impulse, and Viareggio became the most important goal for country holidays, with the following bloom of other bathing establishments. The coastal zone was expanded and embellished by new buildings in Liberty stile, which shot forward the town to goals today reached. Viareggio grew up socially and culturally, joining laboriousness with cleverness, earning the appellative of "Pearl of the Tyrrhenia".