Pietrasanta

Once the capital of Forte dei Marmi itself, Pietrasanta is still one of those places sacred to tourism that remain as mythical in the collective imagination as Amalfi, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Camogli or San Gimignano: in short, it is one of those beautiful and impossible destinations where one can go to spend an expensive weekend and where owning a second home is a renowned privilege. More concretely, the town in Versilia, below the Apuan Alps but not far from the sea and indeed facing the Tyrrhenian Sea with its Marina di Pietrasanta, is a world centre for artistic work with marble and other techniques such as mosaic or metal sculpture, full of art galleries with international venues, and proud of its public sculptures created by important names in the market, such as Igor Mitoraj or Fernando Botero.

All this unquestionable glamour should not, however, overshadow the better-established art in the old town, visible in the main square with the Collegiate Church of San Martino, considered the local cathedral and made of the ever-present marble, housing notable sculptures and the late-Gothic Madonna del Sole, the town's patron saint, and the Oratory of St Hyacinthus, next door on Via Garibaldi, where one of the two baptismal fonts in particular attracts attention: originally, the two fountains were themselves located in the cathedral.

A literary detail: a few kilometres from Pietrasanta towards Sant'Anna di Stazzema, near Valdicastello, is the house where Giosuè Carducci was born in 1835.