VIAREGGIO

town, Lucca provincia, Toscana (Tuscany) regione, central Italy. It lies along the Ligurian Sea, south of the Apuan Alps, just northwest of Pisa. Sheltered by dense pine woods and possessing a famous 5.5-mile (9-kilometre) beach of fine sand, it is one of Italy's most popular seaside resorts and has a small harbour for yachts and a fishing port. The body of the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was cremated on the beach near Viareggio after he drowned offshore in 1822; he is commemorated in the Piazza Shelley by a bust sculptured by Urbano Lucchesi (1894). At nearby Torre del Lago is the villa of the composer Giacomo Puccini, which is the site of his grave. Pop. (1993 est.) mun., 57,541.