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An elegant city of opera and arcaded Romanesque façades. The medieval towers and 16th-century ramparts are now domesticated as small parks.

Lucca’s best wine shop is guaranteed to raise the hairs on your neck, with its hundreds of bottles crowded into small cellar rooms.

This is another good shop for presents: you’ll pay decent prices for highly decorated Renaissance-style ceramics from Montelupo and Deruta.

This atmospheric antique jewellers, set under frescoed vaults dating from 1800, also sells silver and watches.

Since 1846 this has been the Lucca café of choice for musical and literary luminaries. The interiors are of the period, and the food and pastries are rather fine.

La Mora serves Lucchese cuisine plus a superb cacciucco (fish stew).

Da Leo is crowded with locals and buzzing with conversation. Try the zuppa ai cinque cereali , a soup filled with grains and legumes.

A grassy “Field of Miracles”. The Campo is studded with masterpieces of Romanesque architecture: a Baptistry and Cathedral containing Gothic pulpits by Pisano and, of course, that ridiculously leaning, famous belltower.

Treat yourself – or a (very good) friend – to a present from this 1870 shop, selling classy Italian kitchenware ranging from contemporary porcelain to Alessi gadgets.

Look out over the Arno River and imbibe with the ghosts of Pisa’s intellectual élite at one of Italy’s oldest literary cafés – it opened in 1794.

A friendly tavern on the ground floor of a medieval tower-house. Try the beans and funghi (mushrooms).

The column in the dining room belonged to a medieval church; the Pisan recipes are just as ancient.

The Serchio River Valley north of Lucca’s plain is bounded on the east by the Apuan Alps, which are home to the Grotta del Vento (Cave of the Winds). To the west are the wilds of the Garfagnana Mountains. Stopping points in the region include Borgo a Mozzano, which consists of an inn and the lithe Ponte del Diavolo bridge. In legend, this was built by the Devil in exchange for the first soul to cross it (villagers sent a dog).

Today virtually forgotten, in the 19th century Bagni di Lucca was one of Europe’s most fashionable spas (all the English Romantic poets came). The world’s first casino opened here in 1837.

Barga’s white Duomo has a marvellously detailed 13th-century pulpit carved by Guido da Como. The Este dukes once owned the 14th-century fortress of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, and installed the poet Ludovico Ariosto as commander and toll-taker.

Though Florence had already subjugated Pisa in the 16th century, Pisa’s silty harbour and unsure loyalties prompted Grand Duke Cosimo I to hire Buontalenti to build him a brand-new port from scratch. Livorno and Pisa have hated each other ever since.

Livorno is Tuscany’s second city, but short on sights when compared with, say, Pisa. There is just the somewhat wishfully named Venezia Nuova (“new Venice”) canal district, Pietro Tacca’s Mannerist masterpiece Monumento ai Quattro Mori (1623–6) at the port, and the Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori. The latter is devoted to native son Fattori, chief painter of the 19th-century Macchiaioli (Tuscan “impressionists”). Artist Amedeo Modigliani was also born here (but worked in Paris), as was composer Pietro Mascagni.

Tiny resort favoured by jet-setters. The village is set back amid the pine forest, the beach lined with colourful little beach cabanas.

For 70 years La Capannina – part cocktail bar/restaurant and part night spot – has been serving the best beachside refreshments around.

Of the Versilia beach resorts, Viareggio has the most style and substance. The Liberty Style (Art Nouveau) of its many villas, cafés and buildings harkens back to the resort’s heyday in the 1920s. Its carnival parade (see Viareggio’s Carnevale), along the popular palm-shaded seafront promenade Viale G. Carducci, is renowned throughout Italy.

Rossi has been in the same family for four generations. They sell elegant pieces from the top names in Italian jewellery design, while their Viale Marconi boutique carries fashionable gold and silver adornments for the younger set.

Try Fappani’s delicious home-made sweets with your morning coffee, preferably on the terrace of this café set in the heart of the seaside promenade’s shopping district.

The Franceschini family runs one of the best seafood restaurants in Italy. Excellent wine list.

This posh, if overbuilt, thermal spa town is worth staying in to experience one of the 19th-century, Grande Dame hotels. Above the town, medieval Montecatini Alto is a favourite escape for summer breezes and cappuccino on the piazza, while nearby Monsummano Terme has the attraction of natural cave saunas.