Viareggio

Viareggio is Tuscany with sand between its toes, a beach town first and an art city never.

It sits on the Versilia coast, the second-largest town in Lucca province, built around a long sandy shore and a famous seafront promenade lined with Liberty-style buildings from the early 1900s. This is a resort in the old European sense, where life runs on the rhythm of the sea: summers packed and lively, winters quiet and local. Its great set piece is the Carnevale, a tradition since 1873, when giant papier-mâché floats parade along the waterfront for weeks. Behind the holiday face is a working town too, home to some of the world's top luxury-yacht shipyards down in the Darsena quarter.