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Viareggio is a city and comune located in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 64,000 it is the main centre of the northern Tuscan Riviera known as Versilia, and the second largest city within the Province of Lucca.   It is known as a seaside resort as well as being the home of the famous carnival of Viareggio (dating back to 1873), and its papier-mâché floats, which (since 1925), parade along the promenade known as “Passeggiata a mare”, in the weeks preceding Easter. The symbol of the carnival of Viareggio and its official mask is Burlamacco, designed and invented by Uberto Bonetti in 1930.   The city traces its roots back to the first half of the 16th century when it became the only gate to the sea for the Republic of Lucca. The oldest building in Viareggio, known as Torre Matilde, dates back to this time and was built by the Lucchesi in 1541 as a defensive fortification to fight the constant menace of corsair incursions.   Viareggio is also an active industrial and manufacturing centre; its shipbuilding industry has long been renowned around the world and its fishing and floricultural industries are still fundamental sectors to the city’s economy.   Viareggio hosts the Premio letterario Viareggio Répaci for literature, established in 1929. Amongst the other events organized around the year, it is worth mentioning the Festival Gaber, which has been held every August since 2004 to celebrate the memory of Giorgio Gaber, and is attended by several high-profile Italian musicians.

The Port and the Marina   Two extensions to today’s Burlamacca canal were built in 1577. It is on its banks that the first maritime activities developed   In 1740, Bernardino Zendrini had a water-gate built in order to prevent the sea water from arriving to lake Massaciuccoli. In 1820 Maria Luisa di Borbone, duchess of Lucca had the first marina of Viareggio built, which was completed in 1823, and took the name of Marina of Lucca. Between 1871 and 1873 the so-called Marina of Tuscany was built, then followed by the Marina of Italy, 1907 through to 1911. In 1938 the Marina of the Empire was also built, which was followed in the 1970s by the Marina of Viareggio (also known as the New Marina), the Marina of the Madonnina, and the new lighthouse. The Madonnina can host up to 500 vessels.   The city hosts the local Capitaneria di Porto, and all vessels registered here bear the marking VG.

By Car: A 1 Aurelia (Roma-Ventimiglia) Motorways: from the south: A1 (Motorway del Sole) till Firenze, A11 (Firenze/Mare) till the tollbooth of Viareggio; A12 (Genova Rosignano) till the tollboth of Viareggio; from the north: A1 (Motorway del Sole) till Parma, then A15 (Motorway of Cisa) till Santo Stefano Magra, then A12 (Genova-Rosignano) till the tollbooth of Viareggio.

Raylway: Ventimiglia-Torino-Genova-Pisa-Roma; Milano-Livorno; Viareggio-Lucca-Montecatini-Pistoia-Prato-Firenze. For each of these lines, the station of arrival is always to Viareggio.

By Plane: Viareggio is easily reachable from the airport G. Galilei of Pisa (22 km) by public transport, as well as from the airport of Florence A. Vespucci (95 km) .   By boat: The nearest port is the port of Viareggio with more than a thousand berths. As indicated in the chart 909/28 Navy Hydrographic Institute of Genoa, has a geographical position 43 ° 51 ‘north latitude and 10 ° 15′ east longitude. For information contact the Harbor Office or Coast Guard in Viareggio (0584.44444) or that of Forte dei Marmi (0584.89826). Viareggio Harbor Town Tourism – Tel. 0584.32033 Port authorities – Tel. 0584.44444

EVENTS

CARNIVAL

Viareggio celebrates 140 years of carnival culture and tourism. This is an international event that takes place in collaboration with several European cities where take place the main carnival events. I protagonisti indiscussi delle spettacolari parate sono i carri “giganti di cartapesta”. Obviously protagonists of the spectacular parade are the cars: ‘giant made of papier-mache’. Viareggio proposes a series of events of great interest for adults and for children. Viareggio doesn’t represent only carnival parades on the wide promenades, or papier-mache constructions of first and second category and masks, but carnival also means local parties and dances organized by the best pubs in Versilia. Plus Viareggio offers a special program for performances and culture, musical comedies in vernacular, events about gourmet cuisine in the best restaurants of the city, and many other important entertainments. Unanimously considered the most important carnival celebration of Italy and Europe. It was born in 1873, and the now ever-present papier mâché — used to build the famous floats — was first introduced in 1925. The official masks of the Carnival are Burlamacco and Ondina, drawn for the first time in 1930. Since 1954, RAI broadcasts the entire event on national TV. Since 2001, the craftsmen of the carnival have moved to the Cittadella del Carnevale or, literally, Carnival Town.

EUROPA CINEMA

EuropaCinema was founded in Rimini in 1984 by Felice Laudadio, director of Venice International Film Festival in 1997-98 and president of Cinecittà Holding from 1999 to 2002, currently director of Taormina Film Festival. EuropaCinema was born after the collaboration of Federico Fellini, who created the logo of the festival and the first poster, made in the following years by Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Ettore Scola, Marcello Mastroianni and Ingmar Bergman. EuropaCinema soon became one of the most prestigious festivals in Europe, considered by producers, distributors and authors an important alternative to the Venice Film Festival. EuropaCinema has conserved this role until 1989 when it was finally transferred in Viareggio, perfect city to host an event like this.

FESTIVAL PUCCINI

- Torre del Lago, where every year takes place the Puccini Festival, is located between the lake of Massaciuccoli and the Tyrrhenian Sea, 4 km from the beaches of Viareggio on the Tuscan coast, 18 km from Lucca and Pisa. Each year the Festival hosts 40,000 viewers in its open-air theater, a few steps from the Villa Mausoleo where Giacomo Puccini lived and worked; nowadays this property has become a chapel which conserves Puccini’s remains. Torre del Lago is a favorite destination of opera lovers and tourists who wants to visit the places where one of the most beloved composer of the twentieth century has been living.

- The Festival di Torre del Lago was born in 1930 thank to Puccini. ‘… I always come here and take the boat to go and shoot snipes … But once I would like to come here and listen to my work in the open air … ‘ (Puccini in Giovacchino Forzano in November 1924, before leaving for the clinic of Brussels where he died shortly after). The author of La Bohème and Madama Butterfly, ‘the last great poet of Italian opera, the greatest composer that Italy and the world have ever had during the XX century’ (Roman Vlad), expressed the wish to let live His creatures again in the incredible natural setting of the Lake of Massaciuccoli.

REPACI PRIZE

The Viareggio Prize, has been founded in 1929 and is one of the oldest Italian literature prizes. Leonida Repaci, Carlo Salsa and Alberto Colantuoni which met Primo Conti and Gian Capo: two intellectuals who in those years loved to spend their holidays on the coast resort of Versilia; these artists had the idea to create a literary prize that could take place on the beach under the umbrella. They were inspired by a coterie of the Bagutta Prize, born in 1926 in Milan, but these artists decided to realize a prize in the open air instead of an literary event in a closed restaurant. Putting fiction non-fiction and poetry on the same level, Viareggio brought together leading intellectuals of the that period since the 30s; all these artist have represented a milestone for the development of Italian culture. These are some of the writers who contributed to the Viareggio Prize: Luigi Pirandello, Eduardo De Filippo, Concetto Marchesi, Francesco Flora, John Russo, Massimo Bontempelli, Giacomo De Benedetti, Alberto Savino, Orio Vergani Giuseppe Ungaretti, Roberto Longhi, Alfredo Schiaffini Guido Piovene Franco Antonicelli. The Prize was interrupted during the war – Viareggio was bombed – then since 1947 has started a new virtuous cycle, when the letters from prison of Antonio Gramsci were awarded. In the following Carlo Emilio Gadda, Elsa Morante, Anna Maria Ortese, Alberto Moravia, Italo Calvino, Giorgio Bassani will be the winner of this Prize. Most of them have been called by Repaci to the jury of Viareggio.