Versilia
Tuscany's marble beach, from Pisa to Carrara
The book carries the road and the writing. It carries no opening hours, no prices and no bus times, because a Kindle cannot be edited once it is on your device and those go stale in a season. This page is where they live instead, and it is rebuilt every morning from the same catalogue that runs the rest of the site.
Pick your length
The same road, three ways. End to end it is 2 h 41 of driving and 104 km, which every one of these covers. The difference is how many times you stop.
A weekend
One base, no repacking.
Day 1 Pietrasanta and the sand
Morning. Land at Pisa, pick the car up, and drive straight to Pietrasanta. Drop the bags and walk the square before you do anything else.
Afternoon. Down to the sea at Tonfano, five minutes, and an afternoon on the sand. Back up for the square between six and eight, which is the whole point of the town.
Sleep: Pietrasanta
Day 2 The quarries and Colonnata
Morning. Up to Carrara and into the quarries. The white you have been looking at from the beach, close enough to touch.
Afternoon. Colonnata on the shelf above, lardo from a marble tub, then back down the coast road to Forte dei Marmi for the evening.
Sleep: Pietrasanta
Five days
Still one base. Park once and radiate.
Day 1 Arrive, and get to the sea
Morning. Pisa airport, the car, and out. Do not stay for the tower.
Afternoon. Viareggio: the pier, the fish, and a paper cone of fried anchovies eaten on a bollard with the mountains going orange behind you.
Sleep: Pietrasanta
Day 2 The lake and the old coast
Morning. Torre del Lago and the belvedere over Lake Massaciuccoli.
Afternoon. Through the pines to the one stretch that still looks the way the whole coast looked before the bathing clubs: sand, dune grass, a shower, a shack.
Sleep: Pietrasanta
Day 3 Pietrasanta, slowly
Morning. The square, the duomo, the sculpture in the street, and the sound of a blade from three directions.
Afternoon. The museum of the models, then the square again at six. This is the day that decides whether you come back.
Sleep: Pietrasanta
Day 4 Up the valley
Morning. Camaiore, then up to Casoli and Lombrici on the road above it.
Afternoon. Seravezza, and the side road to Stazzema if you have the stomach for what happened there.
Sleep: Pietrasanta
Day 5 The white mountain
Morning. Carrara, the quarries, and Colonnata.
Afternoon. Down to the port at Marina di Carrara, where the marble leaves, and back along the whole strip to the airport.
Sleep: Home
Two weeks
Move base twice: the coast first, then Camaiore for the valley, then Carrara at the end.
Day 1 Land and settle
Morning. Pisa, the car, and straight to the middle of the strip.
Afternoon. Nothing. Walk to the sea and come back. The road is not going anywhere.
Sleep: Marina di Pietrasanta, for six nights
Day 2 Viareggio
Morning. The harbour, the boats coming in, the market.
Afternoon. The pier to the lighthouse, and the two halves of Tito at the start of it.
Sleep: Marina di Pietrasanta
Day 3 Torre del Lago
Morning. The lake, the belvedere, and Puccini's house.
Afternoon. The dune beach, and dinner where the menu meets two climates.
Sleep: Marina di Pietrasanta
Day 4 The bagni
Morning. A day doing what the coast is for: a numbered umbrella, two loungers, and the last five metres of sand that belong to nobody.
Afternoon. The bicycle lane from the harbour at Viareggio north, which never shares a road.
Sleep: Marina di Pietrasanta
Day 5 Forte dei Marmi
Morning. The Wednesday market if the day lines up, otherwise the square.
Afternoon. The pier at sunset, and a coffee on the corner while the town walks past.
Sleep: Marina di Pietrasanta
Day 6 Pietrasanta
Morning. The square, the marble workshops, the museum of the models.
Afternoon. The square again at six, then dinner in a room with ten covers.
Sleep: Marina di Pietrasanta
Day 7 A day off the road
Morning. Lucca is under an hour. So is the Cinque Terre, which you will do once.
Afternoon. Back for the evening. Coming home to the same bar is the point of a long stay.
Sleep: Marina di Pietrasanta
Day 8 Move inland
Morning. Pack and drive up to Camaiore. Twenty minutes, and the flat ends.
Afternoon. The town, the Saturday sawdust carpets if it is June, and the valley road above it.
Sleep: Camaiore, for three nights
Day 9 Casoli and Lombrici
Morning. Up to Casoli, the village that scratches its history into its own walls.
Afternoon. Down as far as Lombrici and the old oil mill on the stream. Do not plan anything for after.
Sleep: Camaiore
Day 10 Seravezza and Stazzema
Morning. Seravezza, the Medici palace, and the river that comes down white.
Afternoon. The road up to Sant'Anna di Stazzema. Give it the whole afternoon and do not talk on the way down.
Sleep: Camaiore
Day 11 Move to the mountain
Morning. Over to Carrara, past Massa, with the white getting closer the whole way.
Afternoon. The town, the academy, the marble under your feet in the street.
Sleep: Carrara, for three nights
Day 12 The quarries
Morning. Into the working quarries. This is the thing the whole coast is downstream of.
Afternoon. Colonnata, and lardo cured in a marble tub with the mountain it came from in view.
Sleep: Carrara
Day 13 The port and the plain
Morning. Marina di Carrara, where the stone leaves by ship.
Afternoon. The sun going into the sea behind the breakwater, which is where the book ends.
Sleep: Carrara
Day 14 Out
Morning. The whole strip back down to Pisa, an hour if you do not stop, which you will.
Afternoon. Fly.
Sleep: Home
Pisa to Carrara
Every drive time here is computed from the same road data the rest of the site runs on, and every distance is the road distance, not the distance across the map. End to end the road is 2 h 41 of driving and 104 km, before you stop for anything.
start
Pisa
On the railway
Where the road starts, because this is where you arrive. The book begins here and does not stay.
30 min29 km
Viareggio
from Pisa
On the railway
The coast's own city, working all year rather than for ten weeks. The harbour, the pier and the fish off the boats.
Torre del Lago, the lake and the Puccini house, sits inside this commune.
22 min14 km
Camaiore
from Viareggio
On the railway
The turn inland, where the coast stops being the point and the valley behind it starts.
Casoli and Lombrici are hamlets of this commune, up the valley.
18 min12 km
Pietrasanta
from Camaiore
On the railway
The marble town that became an art town. The best single evening on this road, and the square at six is the thing people come back for.
Tonfano and Marina di Pietrasanta are this commune's own stretch of sand.
11 min6 km
Forte dei Marmi
from Pietrasanta
The expensive one. The beach clubs, the Wednesday market, and a square you can sit on for the price of a coffee.
28 min14 km
Seravezza
from Forte dei Marmi
On the railway
Back inland and up, where the marble is cut rather than sold, and where the mushrooms come down in October.
40 min21 km
Stazzemaside trip
from Seravezza
The side trip off the Seravezza road, and the reason this stretch of Tuscany is not only a beach.
52 min29 km
Carrara
from Seravezza
On the railway
The end of the road and the source of all of it. The quarries, and Colonnata on the shelf above them.
Colonnata is a hamlet of this commune, about half an hour up from the town.
Massa sits on the road between Seravezza and Carrara and is in the book. It is not one of the thousand communes this site catalogues, so it has no page here and no computed drive time. The leg time shown skips it.
The tables
These are the tables I actually eat at. Everything below this section is somebody else's recommendation, and it is labelled as such.
24 places, in road order, every one of them written up in the book.
Viareggio
Piccolo Tito
At the start of the pier
The plastic-chair half of Tito, the same kitchen and the same morning's catch as the linen half next door, at just under half the price. Frittura in a paper cone, clams in a paper-rimmed bowl, and the wine still arrives in a proper bottle.
Tito del Molo
Next door, on the corner
The other half of the same building, with linen, wooden chairs and a terrace over the boats. For the night that earns the tablecloth.
Il Delfino
Next along the pier
The same model with more garlic and oil, and always fried octopus, which alone is worth the stop.
Il Capitano
Across the footbridge, in the Darsena
The caciucco. You point at the counter, they weigh it, they cook it, and the men in navy overalls from the yards eat it at the round table by the door. One heavy course, no dessert.
Da Cecco
Torre del Lago
Sea on one side of the menu and marsh on the other. The pigeon over polenta is still one of the best things I have eaten in this part of Italy, and the owner asks whether you have been before, then tells you to come back.
Adagio Sunset
On the sand at Torre del Lago
Grilled fish, a Vermentino they replace without asking, and nobody in a hurry.
Camaiore
Emilio e Bona
Lombrici, on the road up to Casoli
An old oil mill on a stream with the millstones still in the room, the family living upstairs and cooking downstairs, and a terrace above the water. The tordelli carry a Tordello d'Oro. Where we go for an anniversary, and I would call it the most romantic table in Versilia.
Osteria Il Rivellino
In town
Five or six tables, the kitchen is the room, and the tordelli are folded two metres from your fork. Black truffle on everything in season.
Bisteccheria da Alan
Via di Mezzo
A butcher by day and a steakhouse Friday to Sunday. Five cuts of beef and nothing else, which is the correct answer.
Bonuccelli
Via di Mezzo
The salumeria with tables out the back: sbriciolona and biroldo on a plank, bread, and a carafe from the hills.
Pietrasanta
The town
Trattoria Gatto Nero
Piazza Carducci, by the post office
Ten covers, stone walls that have been stone walls since about 1300, a fireplace lit from October to April, and Alberta making the same eight or nine things she has made for thirty years. Nobody will move you along in three hours. The crostini first, then the trippa alla fiorentina, the best in Versilia.
Il Vaticano
A small room off a side street
Fiorentina and lardo from Colonnata and not much else. The lardo comes first on warm bread, then two kilos of steak on a board, eaten for an hour. Do not ask for a side.
Filippo
Across town
No menu. Filippo cooks what Filippo feels like and you pay what the meal costs.
Il Duomo
On the square
Not a restaurant. The whole point of the town, in a glass.
Marina di Pietrasanta
Trattoria da Carlino
Via Versilia, Tonfano
The vongole, every time, and caciucco on Sundays only. Paper tablecloths and locals through February. Call ahead in winter.
Alex
Viale Versilia, Marina di Pietrasanta
A 1900s villa done out with tropical plants and marble, three tasting menus balancing fish and meat, and a wine list that is the real reason to book, since every bottle is also for sale from the shop. Where I go when the evening earns more than paper.
Sirena Café
On the front
One of many cafés on the front, and the one we go back to for the counter of bignè, in more kinds than I have managed to count. Two or three with a coffee and you have had dessert without the whole cake.
The porchetteria on the square
Tonfano
I once asked whether they ever put cheese in the panino, the way they do in Rome. The owner looked at me for a full second. No. Tuscan porchetta is meat, and we add more meat.
Lo Studio
Behind the square in Tonfano
Bar, antique shop, concert venue and circus, run by a man who dresses as a clown and makes excellent cocktails for his friends. One of the most Italian things I know.
Forte dei Marmi
Caffè Roma
Piazza Garibaldi
Not for the food. For the table on the corner of the square where the whole town walks past you for the price of a coffee.
Seravezza
Ristorante Ulisse
Via Campana
Mario Fiori's room. In late September and October the mushroom tasting menu, and eat the porcini raw if they are offering them that way. The rest of the year, the regular menu and the same kitchen.
Il Giardino del Mediceo
By the palace
Where we first ate in this town, back when we still lived up the mountain.
Carrara
The four-table place in Colonnata
On the street above the car park
The one with the man on the slicer and no menu. Penne with lardo, no cheese, and a glass of the local red that is red without being polished. Any of the small rooms up here will do the same. That one did it for me.
The bar on Piazza Gramsci
Carrara
Plastic chairs and a one-euro espresso, with the change handed over without a smile, the way you hand it to a regular. One of the kindest gestures I have had in a long time.
What the guides pick
Not our picks. Places the guides put their name to, worth a table when you pass through.
Viareggio12 places the guides rate
- Il Piccolo PrincipeRistoranteMichelin2 StarsGambero Rosso3 Forchette · 90/100L'EspressoTop 300La ListeLa Liste · 91.5
- LunasiaRistoranteMichelin1 StarGambero Rosso2 Forchette · 88/100
- RomanoRistoranteMichelin1 StarGambero Rosso2 Forchette · 88/100L'EspressoTop 300La ListeLa Liste · 82.5
- Da Miro alla LanternaRistoranteGambero Rosso1 Forchetta · 77/100MichelinMichelin Selected
- Giardino di MariRistoranteMichelinMichelin Selected
- MaMe RestaurantRistoranteMichelinMichelin Selected
- Henri RestaurantRistoranteMichelinMichelin Selected
- BuonumoreRistoranteSlow FoodChiocciola
- Il BuonumoreTrattoriaGambero Rosso2 Gamberi
- Pesciolino BriacoTrattoriaGambero Rosso2 Gamberi
- Pivot Bistrò di MareBistrotGambero Rosso2 Tavole
- Il PortoRistoranteGambero Rosso1 Forchetta · 78/100
Camaiore4 places the guides rate
- Il MerloRistoranteGambero Rosso2 Forchette · 82/100MichelinMichelin Selected
- Quinto QuartoRistoranteSlow FoodChiocciola
- La DoganaRistoranteGambero RossoGambero Rosso listed
- NanniTrattoriaGambero Rosso1 Gambero
Pietrasanta9 places the guides rate
- AlexRistoranteMichelinMichelin Selected
- La MartinaticaRistoranteGambero Rosso1 Forchetta · 79/100MichelinMichelin Selected
- FilippoRistoranteGambero Rosso2 Forchette · 82/100MichelinMichelin Selected
- PeposoTrattoriaGambero Rosso2 GamberiSlow FoodChiocciola
- ParadisRistoranteGambero Rosso1 Forchetta · 79/100
- L'Enoteca MarcucciWine BarGambero Rosso3 Bottiglie
- Da GigiRistoranteGambero RossoGambero Rosso listed
- SementisBistrotGambero Rosso2 Tavole
- Osteria StappasogniTrattoriaGambero Rosso2 Gamberi
Forte dei Marmi7 places the guides rate
- La MagnoliaRistoranteMichelin1 StarGambero Rosso2 Forchette · 87/100
- SciabolaRistoranteMichelin1 StarGambero Rosso2 Forchette · 82/100
- BistrotRistoranteMichelin1 StarGambero Rosso2 Forchette · 86/100
- LorenzoRistoranteMichelin1 StarGambero Rosso2 Forchette · 89/100L'EspressoTop 300La ListeLa Liste · 84.5
- Lux Lucis - Hotel Principe Forte dei MarmiRistoranteMichelin1 StarGambero Rosso2 Forchette · 88/100L'EspressoTop 300La ListeLa Liste · 83
- Osteria del MareRistoranteGambero Rosso1 Forchetta · 78/100
- Pesce BaraccaBistrotGambero Rosso2 Tavole
Seravezza1 place the guides rate
- Il Pozzo di BugiaTrattoriaGambero RossoGambero Rosso listed
Carrara3 places the guides rate
- ExtraRistoranteGambero RossoGambero Rosso listedMichelinMichelin Selected
- Il NarcisoRistoranteMichelinMichelin Selected
- Enoteca VeliaWine BarGambero Rosso2 Bottiglie
Where to sleep
The book carries no hotels on purpose. These are the beds the guides put their name to. We have not stayed in them.
Viareggio1 place the guides rate
- Grand Hotel Principe di PiemonteHotelMichelin2 KeysLeading HotelsLeading Hotels of the World
Camaiore2 places the guides rate
- Locanda al ColleHotelMichelin1 Key
- Relais Corte RodeschiHotelMichelinMichelin Guide selection
Forte dei Marmi4 places the guides rate
- Pensione AmericaHotelMichelin1 KeyLeading HotelsLeading Hotels of the WorldLocali StoriciLocali Storici
- Principe Forte dei MarmiHotelMichelin1 KeyLeading HotelsLeading Hotels of the World
- The Magic Forte dei MarmiHotelMichelinMichelin Guide selection
- Grand Hotel ImperialeHotelMichelinMichelin Guide selection
The year
Months rather than dates, because a date goes stale in a year and a month does not. Most of these move by a week or two between years, so check before you book a flight around one.
- February
The carnival Viareggio Every weekend of the month, and best seen from a balcony. February belongs to Viareggio and to nothing else.
- March
Il Tordello d'Oro Camaiore The cook-off for the Versilian tordello, judged in the hamlets above Camaiore. The 2025 final ran at Lombrici.
The feast of Assunzione di Maria Viareggio The commune's patron saint
- May
Sgraffiti a Casoli Camaiore New sgraffito panels cut onto the house walls of Casoli, up the valley behind Camaiore.
- June
Luminara di San Ranieri Pisa Religious & traditional
Tappeti di Segatura Camaiore Religious & traditional
The feast of Antonio di Padova Stazzema The commune's patron saint
The feast of Ceccardo di Luni Carrara The commune's patron saint
The feast of Santissimo Nome di Gesù Camaiore The commune's patron saint
- July
Festival Puccini Viareggio Open-air opera at Torre del Lago, on the lake where he wrote.
The Versiliana festival Pietrasanta Theatre and talks in the pinewood, and the concerts in the park at the old Bussola tent through June and July.
- August
Festival Puccini Viareggio Open-air opera at Torre del Lago, on the lake where he wrote.
The Versiliana festival Pietrasanta Theatre and talks in the pinewood, and the concerts in the park at the old Bussola tent through June and July.
Ferragosto The middle of the month, when the strip is unlivable. Peter and Sophia leave the country. Do not come unless you like a crowd, and if you must, base inland.
Festa di Sant'Ermete Forte dei Marmi Religious & traditional
The end-of-summer food fair Seravezza The same month as the town's own feast.
The feast of San Lorenzo Seravezza The commune's patron saint
The Sant'Anna di Stazzema commemoration Stazzema The annual commemoration of the 1944 massacre, held at the church on the hill.
- September
Festival Puccini Viareggio Open-air opera at Torre del Lago, on the lake where he wrote.
The Versiliana festival Pietrasanta Theatre and talks in the pinewood, and the concerts in the park at the old Bussola tent through June and July.
Porcini Late September to the end of October. Stalls on every minor road, cash only, weighed on a hand-held balance by the man who picked them at five. Drive ten kilometres inland and find the sign.
- October
Porcini Late September to the end of October. Stalls on every minor road, cash only, weighed on a hand-held balance by the man who picked them at five. Drive ten kilometres inland and find the sign.
Pietrasanta Medievale Pietrasanta The re-enactment, usually in October.
- November
The feast of Martino di Tours Pietrasanta The commune's patron saint
Practical
When to come
May and September are the months, and they are the author's own: the sea is swimmable from mid-May and still warm through September, the beach clubs are open but half asleep, and the mountains are green in one and full of mushrooms in the other. The best summer weeks are mid-June to the end of July, and here is the thing nobody tells you about this coast: July is quiet, because the Italians who own it come in August and the foreigners have never heard of it. August is when all of Italy arrives. Avoid the middle of it entirely.
Get a car, then use the bicycle
The train runs along the coast and stops at Viareggio, Camaiore, Pietrasanta, Massa and Carrara, and Seravezza has a station too, so you can do the towns on the line without a car. What you cannot do without one is Casoli, Colonnata, the beaches at Torre del Lago, Sant'Anna, and the porcini kitchens, which are all at the end of roads the train does not go up. There are buses. They run. Do not plan your week around them. Once the car is parked, the lane along the front runs from the harbour at Viareggio to the harbour at Marina di Carrara without ever sharing a road, and most hotels here will lend you a bicycle.
The limited-traffic zones, and where they will catch you
Every historic centre on this coast has a restricted zone with a camera at the gate, and the fine arrives at your rental company months later with a handling fee on top. Park outside the walls, always. A hotel inside the zone can register your plate, but it has to be done before you drive in, not after.
How the beach clubs work
Most of this coast is bagni: private clubs that rent you a numbered umbrella and two loungers for the day, or for the month if you are Italian. The beach club was invented on this sand and it is still run for people who come back every year. You pay at the entrance and the price rises with how close to the water you sit. The important part: the last five metres of it belong to nobody. Walk through any gate and drop your towel.
The markets
Saturday morning, the market on the square in Tonfano, which is where the lardo comes from and where you buy it as good as anything up in Colonnata. Wednesday, the market in Forte dei Marmi, which is the one people drive for. Both run all year.
Where to base a long stay
Put the car in the middle of the strip and radiate. Pisa is half an hour. Lucca is under an hour, and so is the Cinque Terre. Florence is an hour and a half, which is a day trip and back for dinner. The islands are a ferry from Livorno, forty-five minutes away. The first week you will do the day trips. By the third you will have stopped, because the square in Pietrasanta at six has become the thing you came for.
Keep going
Everything we have written from this coast.
- Colonnata, Carrara, and the Marble Mines | The White Mountain And The Fat Carrara
- Forte dei Marmi | The Rich Town You Can't Fly To Forte dei Marmi
- I Could Get Old Here Camaiore
- Pietrasanta | Old Money, Long Afternoons Pietrasanta
- Pisa | Beyond the Tower Pisa
- Viareggio | The cat at the end of the road Viareggio
Build a plan around these townsAll 1,000 communesThe letter
The other roads: The Apuan AlpsThe ArnoAll the books