TRAVEL
From the Field of Miracles to the Gulf of Paradise
LIGURIA | BY ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD
It’s a rare and special act traveling off-season. Especially somewhere so geared to the summer where sun loungers are arranged in busy blocks to dissuade the casual visitor. Off-season, you meet only locals and don’t wait in line. In time you start to feel like a local. It’s all so much more immersive and rewarding.
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love arriving at Pisa as she, best of all the Tuscan cities, exemplifies the innocence of the early medieval era. She is really the true cradle of the Renaissance. It’s all to be seen within the walled area called ‘Il Campo dei Miracoli’ (Field of Miracles), which comprises The Leaning Tower, Duomo, Baptistry, and the Monumental Cemetery. It proved a great starting point for my coastal journey as I reached Viareggio, a Roman town set beneath the majestic and looming Apuan Alps and now an elegant seaside resort. It’s on the Tuscan Riviera, which is considerably flatter than its Ligurian counterpart. It was on this glamorous beach-front promenade that I came to stay at the majestic Hotel Plaza e de Russie with rooms from Euro 250. This Relais & Chateaux property is the town’s oldest hotel, named after Russian expatriates fleeing the Tsarist Empire. From outside its pristine Belle Epoque white front, I took a brazing morning stroll along the long sandy beach. I walked past the outdoor pools of the beach pavilions, more Art Deco hotels, past cafés, shops, and fish restaurants offering their ‘cacciucco’ (hearty fish soup). It’s a boutique hotel, thus giving a more personal experience, and the décor is reminiscent of the stillness and subdued hues of the Italian artist Giorgio Morandi. 118 | UPSCALE LIVING MAGAZINE | AUG/SEPT 2023
There’s lacquered furniture, leather pouf ottomans, circular mirrors, and locally sourced milky-white marble flooring. In the hotel’s Restaurant Lunasia, there’s a stunning long chartreuse banquette across the tables from teal and grey chairs. The 44 rooms look straight over the promenade to the open sea, some having their own small balconies. They’re furnished traditionally with fine marble bathrooms and parquet flooring. There’s a sophisticated harmony of
