Puccini and the Carnival sustain Viareggio

According toAlessandro Meciani, Councillor for Tourism and Productive Activities, you only need two reasons to buy a second home in Viareggio: the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, held every year between July and August, which attracts visitors from all over the world, and the February Carnival, now celebrating its 150th anniversary. Meciani adds that: “There is always something going on and fun to do in our 60,000-strong town, even in winter.” And it is currently being redeveloped. In Versilia it is possible to buy a piece of history, even though getting hold of a viareggina is no easy task. “A viareggina is a traditional twentieth-century property, the main part of which was inhabited during the winter but rented out during the summer, with its owners moving to the outbuilding”, explain Giovanni Larini and Francesca Trupia, owners of the agency LT Immobili & Design. A tradition that continued until the 1950s. Various aspects of modernism have been incorporated and reworked in the buildings of Viareggio: from the historical styles of the nineteenth century to the floral experimentation of Art Nouveau and the Secession movement, and from the eclecticism of the 1920s to Art Deco. Today, they are highly sought-after on the tourist property market thanks to the historical charm they exude. Most are in Art Nouveau style, spread over one or two floors, ground floor and first floor, with inner courtyard, “passetto” and “small house” at the back of the property, where the owners lived when they rented the main house to holiday-makers. “Viareggine often have Venetian floors, marble stairs, wrought iron railings and solid wood handrails, high ceilings and even frescoes”, explains Francesca Trupia, who is an interior designer. “The wider the façades, the larger the surface area of the house”, the designer adds. The most popular size of property ranges from 100 to 120 square metres, with interest particularly high among Italians from Lombardy, Milan and, to a lesser extent, Florence. Very few of these properties come with a garage, and those that do are particularly sought-after. “A viareggina in good condition typically costs around €5,000 per square metre. A modest renovation is actually rather expensive”, Larini and Trupia conclude.