Pietrasanta

Tuscany, Italy

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Pietrasanta is a charming historic town in northern Tuscany, Italy, located in the province of Lucca at the foothills of the Apuan Alps, about 3 kilometers inland from the Ligurian coast and 30 kilometers north of Pisa.

Known as the “Little Athens of Italy,” it is famously called the world’s marble capital and has been a sanctuary for sculptors and artists for six centuries due to its proximity to the Carrara marble quarries that Michelangelo himself used. 

The town, founded in 1255 with a rare Roman grid street layout for Tuscany, features a beautiful medieval piazza surrounded by historic buildings including the 13th–14th century Cathedral of San Martino (Duomo), the 15th-century Romanesque Church of Sant’Agostino, and the remains of a 12th-century citadel. 

Today, Pietrasanta is home to over 50 marble workshops and bronze foundries, more than 15 contemporary art galleries, and sculptures by international artists like Fernando Botero, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Igor Mitoraj, and Damien Hirst dotting its streets and piazzas. With approximately 23,000–24,600 residents, it balances its artistic prestige with village charm, and its seaside fraction, Marina di Pietrasanta, offers sandy white beaches and lidos popular with Florentines and Milanese during summer.