FASHIONABLE VERSILIA (Italy)

The Versilia is the part of the coast of Tuscany, which extends between Forte dei Marmi to the Massaciuccoli Lake, including Viareggio. It is surrounded on the East side by the wonderful Alpi Apuane. The Versilia is the older location of bathing tourism in Italy. It developed as an important bathing tourism area at the beginning of the IXX century, and it was the favourite place for the summer vacations of the Italian artists and intellectuals. This tradition is still surviving, and every summer season the Versilia, has important art exhibitions and literary awards. The attention to the renew of its tourist structures and the adaptation to the tourist's demands, makes now the Versilia one of the most popular European bathing tourism places. Dancing, discos, restaurants, shops and the variety of the beach activities, like to the young and the older people, to the singles and to the families, who every summer crowd the Versilia coast. Forte dei Marmi was an ancient port for the shipping of the marbles from the Alpi Apuane marble quarries. Now it is a fashionable bathing tourism area. To the South there are Marina di Pietrasanta and Lido di Camaiore, before arriving to Viareggio, which is the most important town and bathing area of the Versilia coast. Viareggio lies between two wonderful pine-forests. It developed around the medieval fortress of Motrone, which was the port of the ancient Lucca town. Viareggio was a town of seamen and ship-builders, when, at the beginning of 1800, become the pre-eminently bathing tourism town in Italy. Two bathing structures were built in 1828: one for the gentlemen and one for the ladies. Now there are plenty. Along its famous promenade, there are fashionable shops and the beautiful liberty style architectures saved from the fire of the 1917, which destroyed most of the wooden made liberty style bathing structures.

To know more:
www.versilia.turismo.toscana.it

Reportage: 88 photos on CD-Rom