Since 1873 Viareggio has devoted a month to the art of laughing at power: the allegorical floats of its Carnival — papier-mâché machines tall as buildings, animated by theatrical mechanics — parade along the seafront avenues and are built year-round in the Cittadella. Burlamacco, the mask created in 1931, is their ambassador.
The rest is Belle Époque: the Art Nouveau cafés of the Passeggiata, Galileo Chini's ceramics, shipyards that now launch superyachts. At Torre del Lago, Giacomo Puccini wrote nearly all his operas: the summer festival sings them steps from his villa, between lake and sea.
Near Viareggio
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
