Viareggio

Viareggio has the same flat sand and the same Apuan marble backdrop as its expensive neighbour four kilometres north, plus a Liberty-style seafront of 1920s cafés and bathing pavilions that Forte dei Marmi never had. The February carnival has run since 1873 with papier-mâché floats up to twenty metres high, built in a permanent workshop city on the edge of town.