Where to live

The glamorous face of Viareggio: the seafront promenade lined with Art Nouveau cafés, grand hotels, and the beach clubs of the Versilia. It's the most desirable and priciest place to live, all sea views and summer buzz, at the heart of the town's resort life. The trade is cost and seasonality: it's expensive and busiest in summer, quieter come winter.

Best for: those who want the seafront glamour and the sea at the door, and can pay for it

Viareggio's working harbour district, home to its famous yacht-building yards and a lively strip of fish restaurants and bars along the water. It's characterful, real, and a bit more affordable than the seafront, with a genuine maritime life and the best cacciucco in town. The trade is that it's a working port area, busier and less polished than the promenade.

Best for: those who want harbourside character and real local life over resort polish

The everyday Viareggio a few streets back from the beach, ordinary residential neighbourhoods with local shops, schools, and a year-round community that doesn't empty out in winter. This is where the value is: markedly cheaper than the seafront for the same easy access to it, and where most people who actually live here are based.

Best for: year-round residents and families who want value and a real community near the sea

Five kilometres south, the lakeside village of Torre del Lago, Puccini's old home, with its summer opera festival by the water, and the quieter southern fringes offer a calmer, greener base between the sea and the lake. More spread-out and residential, with the pine forests and the Massaciuccoli lake close by. The trade is the distance from Viareggio's centre.

Best for: those wanting a quiet, green base near the lake and the coast, happy to commute in