Experience the best of Versilia

Versilia is a narrow strip of coast in northern Tuscany, between the Ligurian Sea and the steep, pale mountains of the Apuan Alps. Its main town is Viareggio, a seaside resort with a long promenade of Liberty-style cafés and hotels and a carnival in February with huge papier-mâché floats. Forte dei Marmi, further north, is a smart beach resort of pines and villas, and Pietrasanta is a small town of sculptors' workshops and marble.

The marble quarries of Carrara, whose white stone Michelangelo used, lie a short way north-west, and the village of Colonnata is famed for its cured lard. Torre del Lago, on Lake Massaciuccoli, was the home of Puccini, whose villa is a museum and whose operas are staged in an open-air theatre in summer. Lucca, with its tree-topped walls, lies inland, and Pisa to the south-east.

Seafood rules the coast: cacciucco, the fish stew in the Viareggio manner, spaghetti with clams, and farinata, a chickpea pancake. Vermentino, a fresh white wine, accompanies it. The beach season runs from May to September, when the pine woods behind the sand give welcome shade, and the off-season towns are calm.