Versilia, the Best Part of Italy
A guide to the Tuscan coast nobody talks about, written from Pietrasanta.
I’ve lived in Pietrasanta for three years, and Versilia revealed itself to me slowly, the way a good place does. I didn’t move here because I had a plan. I moved here, and over months and years, it grew on me. Now, when people ask me what the best part of Italy is, I tell them Versilia, and I give the same reasons every time.
So that’s what this guide is. The reasons. And my recommendations.
Versilia is a 20-kilometer stretch of the Tuscan coast in the province of Lucca, between Lake Massaciuccoli in the south and the Ligurian border in the north. The towns most people have heard of are Forte dei Marmi (because of the rich), Viareggio (because of the carnival), and Pietrasanta (because of the marble and the artists). Most people who travel to Tuscany have never heard of any of it. Tuscany, in the foreign imagination, is Florence, Chianti, Val d’Orcia, and the hills. The coast doesn’t exist. Even the official Italian tourism establishment doesn’t really push it, when ENIT publishes its big “Viaggio Italiano” guides for international travelers, Versilia is not in them. Tuscany skips its own coast.
That’s the first reason it’s the best part of Italy. You are not stepping on tourists here. I lived in Rome and Florence during COVID, when the cities emptied out, and locals could finally walk through their own piazzas, and it was the most beautiful version of those cities I have ever seen. Now, when I go back, getting to a restaurant or a museum requires hidden passages and timing tricks. In Versilia, except for July and August, you don’t have that feeling. You can live here. You can also visit here, and the place treats you like a person, not a line item on the tourism board’s sheet.
The second reason is proximity. From Pietrasanta, by car or by train, Pisa and Lucca are under an hour. The Cinque Terre is under an hour. Florence is under two. Bologna is under three. Venice and Rome are about four. The port of Livorno is forty-five minutes, which means island-hopping in the Tuscan archipelago is a day trip. For us, anything between Trieste in the north and Rome in the south is reachable for lunch and back by dinner. Versilia is not a destination you fly into and stay put. It’s a base. Italy radiates out from it.
The third reason is what’s inside Versilia itself. The beach here is one of the longest uninterrupted stretches of sandy coast in Italy. Within 5 minutes of my front door, I can be on that beach, or in 30 minutes, up in the Apuan Alps with marble quarries above me, or in the Tuscan hill country with cypress-lined roads and stone villages. In winter, the ski slopes at Abetone open, and you can technically ski in the morning and swim — well, walk on the sand — in the afternoon. I don’t know how many places on the planet let you do that. I’ve found a few. None of them is in Tuscany.
The fourth reason is that it works. Versilia is in northern Italy, except on the official map (Tuscany is considered the ‘middle of Italy’). The trains run, the services function, the roads are maintained, and most things you need are open when they say they are. If you’ve gotten used to Northern European or American levels of reliability and want to keep them while moving to Italy, Versilia is the part of Italy where you can. The trade-off is price — this is not the cheap south. Forte dei Marmi has Northern European resort pricing. Pietrasanta and Camaiore are reasonable. Viareggio is honest. I’ve lived in Calabria and Sicily. Wonderful people and amazing places, but I would probably wouldn’t pick them as my home, to be honest. I value my double-glazing windows, full insulation, prompt trash collection, and working services around me, sorry.
And the last reason is the most personal one. I rarely sleep anywhere else in Italy, because I don’t need to. Versilia and its surroundings can deliver almost anything Italy has to offer. The best Fiorentina I know is at a butteri ranch thirty minutes from my house. The best wines in Europe are an hour and a half south in Bolgheri or east in Chianti. The best seafood I’ve eaten in Italy comes off the boats at Viareggio. If I want a rougher beach, I go south. If I want stones and blue water, I go thirty minutes north into Liguria. If I want quiet, I go up into the marble villages above Carrara. Everything is here, or it’s an hour away.
That’s why I live here. That’s why this is the guide I wanted to write first. Below is everything I’d tell a friend planning a trip — where to base, what not to miss, what to eat, and how not to get it wrong.
Why Versilia
The TLDR version.
You’re not stepping on tourists. Outside of July and August, Versilia is livable. Local life is intact. You don’t need tricks to get into a restaurant.
Everything in Italy is within reach. Pisa, Lucca, Cinque Terre — under an hour. Florence — under two. Bologna — under three. Rome and Venice — about four. The Tuscan archipelago is a day trip.
Beach, mountains, and Tuscan hills in 30 minutes. Italy’s longest uninterrupted sandy beach. The Apuan Alps with their marble quarries. Stone villages with cypress roads. All within half an hour of each other.
It actually works. Trains run, services function, and things are open when they say they are. Northern Italy's infrastructure, Tuscan food, and weather.
It’s still Tuscany. The food, the hill towns, the wine, the light. You’re not trading the Tuscan experience for the coast — you’re getting both.
The trade-off: this isn’t the cheap south. Forte dei Marmi prices like a Northern European resort. The rest of Versilia sits at upper-middle European pricing. You’re paying for proximity, infrastructure, and the absence of crowds.
Where to base yourself
Marina di Pietrasanta
This is where I’d put you. Marina is the calm middle of Versilia — quieter than Forte dei Marmi, more polished than Viareggio, and within a fifteen-minute drive of every other town in this guide. The bagni are serious, the pine forest behind the beach is one of the best on the Italian coast, and you can be in Pietrasanta proper, the artistic capital, in ten minutes. If you’re staying for a weekend or a week, base here and radiate out from here.
The places not to miss
Pietrasanta
If you only have one day in Versilia, spend it in Pietrasanta. This is the artistic capital, where Michelangelo first sourced his marble in the 1500s and where Botero and Mitoraj chose to settle and work. The piazza is one of the most beautiful in Tuscany, and the workshops still produce sculpture for clients across the world. It’s also where I live.
Viareggio
The largest town in Versilia and the one with the most working life still in it. The Carnival in February is one of the biggest in Italy, the Liberty-style architecture along the seafront is the real thing, and the fish market is where the best seafood in Versilia comes from. Don’t write it off as the cheap option — it’s where the actual coast is.
Carrara, Colonnata, and the Marble Mines
Half an hour north of Pietrasanta, the Apuan Alps rise white from quarries that have been worked since the Romans. Colonnata, the village halfway up, is where lardo is cured in marble basins and where you should eat it for lunch. The mines themselves are stunning and unsettling in equal measure — go.
Worth a visit
Forte dei Marmi
The expensive end of Versilia and the most internationally famous town. Worth a half-day for the Wednesday market, the seafront promenade, and the bagni that have been running since the 1920s. If you want to know what Italian old-money summer looks like, this is it. Don’t try to eat dinner here unless you’ve planned for it.
→ Read our feature on Forte dei Marmi
Camaiore
Inland and uphill, Camaiore is the quiet Versilia. The medieval center is intact, the Sunday market is real, and the food is better than on the coast for half the price. It’s where I’d retire if I weren’t already living here.
→ Read our feature on Camaiore
Torre del Lago
The southern edge of Versilia, on the lake where Puccini lived and worked. The Puccini Festival every summer is one of the great open-air opera experiences in Italy. Outside festival season, it’s quiet, almost ghostly, and that’s part of the charm.
→ Read our feature on Torre del Lago
Casoli
Casoli is the hill town behind Camaiore — technically inland Versilia, geographically the start of the Apuan foothills. Worth the half-hour drive for one of the best long-table village dinners in the region.
The food only here
Tordelli lucchesi. The regional pasta — meat-filled and served with ragù — descended from medieval Lucca. If you eat one pasta in Versilia, eat this one.
Lardo di Colonnata. Cured pork fat aged in marble basins, served on warm bread with a glass of red. It sounds like nothing. It is everything.
Where to eat
→ Trattoria da Carlino, Marina di Pietrasanta. Family-run, fish-only, no pretense, and the best plate of cacciucco I’ve eaten on this coast.
→ Trattoria Gatto Nero, Pietrasanta. Nonna’s cooking inside the old gates. Barely a few tables that feel like eating at home.
More restaurants are coming as the archive grows. This section will be updated regularly.
My final note
This guide is alive. I update it whenever a new piece on Versilia goes up — a new restaurant, a new town, a new dispatch from a festival. Bookmark it.
Everything in here is a place I’ve been to personally. I don’t write about restaurants I haven’t eaten at or towns I haven’t walked through. If a place is in this guide, it’s because I went, ate, learned something, and decided it was worth your time.
I bring only good for you. This is the part of Italy I chose to live in, and I’m not sending readers somewhere I wouldn’t send a friend. The frankness in these pieces is the same frankness I’d use across a dinner table.
Guide last updated: 3 May 2026.
