Marina di Pisa

This guide to Marina di Pisa follows the seaside town's path from a scatter of fishing nets on the sand to a Belle Epoque resort, laid out on a grid around three seaside squares in eighteen seventy-two and reached by a little steam train, the trammino, from eighteen ninety-two. It traces the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio's arrival in eighteen ninety-eight, chasing the actress Eleonora Duse, and the house he rented and renamed Villa delle Tempeste after the storms he loved to watch. You will hear how he spent his days sailing the Arno and listening to cicadas and larks, and what he later carved into a rock by the water. Look for the Liberty-style villas with their curling wrought-iron balconies still lining the streets.