Da Romano

Walk around the rather seedy streets of Viareggio now and it is possible to chart the gradual decline over the decades of this one grand old dame of Italian coastal resorts. Her heyday was the turn of the century when most of the still remarkably beautiful Art Nouvean hotels and casinos were built. Then came the slightly less elegant, but still sleek 1920s and 1930s, with their ocean liner facades and Art Deco neon signs. Then, finally, the inevitable 1960’s and 1970’s plasticized consumerism. Viareggio today is more deserving of a place in her own outrageous spring carnival than in a polite drawing room. But if the pearls are a bit tarnished, the oysters and clams are still fresh, and it is possible to find hidden in the back-streets some of the best fish restaurants in Tuscany. One is Romano Franceschini’s, where he and his wife Franca, who is the cook, serve excellent versions of local seafood specialities.