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Learning Italian in Viareggio - Study Italian in Viareggio (on Tuscany seaside)

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The city of Viareggio, Versilia

Viareggio has a great sand beach dotted with private bathing areas that you can buy a day pass for. In parallel you can follow its famous "passeggiata" a large pedonal walk with stores, place to eat, night club and more!

The coastal strip of Versilia (from Forte dei Marmi to the north and Torre del Lago Puccini in the south) has over twenty kilometres of beaches with countless ‘bagni' (bathing establishments), nature parks, pine woods, natural lakes. The coast called the Versillia is a perfect vacation spot for people who enjoy the beach in addition to seeing wonderful nearby attractions.

Viareggio is a popular tourist resort with a historic fishing harbour. Other industries include the manufacture of luxury motor yachts.

The name come from the latin "Via Regis" (literally King's Road), the name of a road that was built in the Middle Ages along the coast and that still exists today. The city was built in the 16th century for the necessities of the Republic of Lucca for a seaside port.

Later, in the middle of the 16th-century, after that the city have been declare "free port", viareggio came subjected at the influence of Florence and the area prospered economically; as well the city became the chieftown of the coastal vicariate. The Medicis used the marble quarried in the area to construct the church of San Lorenzo in Florence, a project of Michelangelo's. Tourism came to the area in the latter half of the 19th-century, when "bathing towns" were established to which people would retreat to relax.

In the 1873 has been founded the carnival, and is as famous as the Rio carnival. Another important local tradition is the Literature Award (created in 1929 by Leonida Rapaci) still following the development of our literature. The architecture in Viareggio is characterized of mogenious art-nouveau style designed by the architect Belluomini and to the ceramics by Galileo and Chino Chini. The symbol of the city is the "Matilde tower" ; It is a fortress edified by the inhabitant of Lucca in the nearby of the port in the 1534.

The area is full of antique and cultural history. The wonderful walled city of Lucca is nearby and is worth a chapter in is self. This entire area is near to Florence only about and hour by car and one can also go by train. It is 20 minutes by car from Pisa (also can get there by train) and indeed if one wanted to use this area as a home base international flights come in to Pisa via, London, Paris, etc.

Learning Italian in Viareggio - Study Italian in Viareggio (on Tuscany seaside)

Other Destinations in Italy