Location: Pietrasanta
Top Things to do in Pietrasanta
Top 8 Free Things to do in Pietrasanta, Tuscany
Pietrasanta is a town and comune on the coast of northern Tuscany in Italy, in the province of Lucca. Pietrasanta is part of Versilia, on the last foothills of the Apuan Alps, about 32 kilometres north of Pisa.
Restaurants in Pietrasanta
1. Museo dei Bozzetti "Pierluigi Gherardi"
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 96 reviews
2. Duomo di Pietrasanta
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 273 reviews
Reviewed By gordonshade
simply fabulous range of products especially the cakes ,buns and sandwiches which together with their coffee makes a visit a MUST . Staff are friendly and super efficient .
3. Chiesa di Sant'Antonio e San Biagio Abate
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 84 reviews
4. Piazza Duomo
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 491 reviews
Reviewed By laurapoint
Pietrasanta is a jewel town in Versilia, known for its artists. Piazza Duomo in the center is the meeting point where all pedestrian streets lead to, with shops and restaurants in the square and close to the square, where you can enjoy unique findings and the sophisticated style of visitors walking there.
5. Pieve dei Santi Giovanni e Felicita
6. Centro Storico
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 10 reviews
Reviewed By Brun066 - Florence, Italy
The characteristic geometric plan, featuring a somewhat elongated rectangle in the NW-SE direction, of the oldest part of Pietrasanta, is immediately evident both to those who observe it on a map and to those who carefully walk the perimeter of the city or its gridiron-like internal areas. It's well known that the origin of such regular plans is to be attributed in Italy both to the ancient Romans and to the late Middle Ages. In this last era, in particular, the cities showing a regular shape are named "Terre Nuove", that is cities founded from scratch by some territorial power, sometimes far away, sometimes rooted alongside the city itself (the latter is the case in Tuscany of the "Città Nuova" in Massa Marittima). Incidentally, a beautiful documentation on the "Terre Nuove", on a European scale, is found in the museum of the same name in San Giovanni Valdarno (Florence). In the case of Pietrasanta, the power creating this regular shape is the nearby city of Lucca, which aims to control this way an area subject to the appetite of rival powers (Pisa, but also the far away Genoa) and strategic for circulation: this is the area where the Roman Via Aurelia passes, and from the time of the Lombards also the Via Francigena, whose route here probably coincides with the Roman one, and therefore is straight, as is generally not the case for medieval itineraries. In turn, the route of the Francigena here orients the main urban axis of Pietrasanta (now via Mazzini and via Garibaldi). Pietrasanta is believed to be the first of the "Terre Nuove" in Tuscany, dating back to the mid-thirteenth century. This era seems ancient to us, but actually it means that the buildings arosing as a result of this planning continue their construction for decades or centuries, so as to give the urban fabric a layout appearing to the visitor much more "modern" than the foundation era. This is what happens in Pietrasanta, it's also what happens in the aforementioned "Città Nuova" in Massa Marittima. But the Pietrasanta urban plan shows a further element of interest: a triangular plan is subsequently grafted onto the pre-existing rectangular one, where one of the sides of the triangle almost coincides with one of the long sides of the rectangle. The result is a very specific shape, which also makes Pietrasanta very similar to nearby Camaiore. The triangle is due to the construction of further walls that connect the lower city with the fortress looming from the hill. This fortress, called "Rocca di Sala" and reproducing an ancient Lombard settlement, was rebuilt, together with the walls, by Castruccio Castracani, duke of Lucca, at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Overall, the whole of the historic town, the Rocca di Sala and the walls connecting them, make original and attractive this delightful Versilia's settlement.
