Viareggio is a beautiful seaside town about 25 minutes along the coast from the expensive beach resort Forte dei Marmi. We were staying at the excellent Una Hotel in Forte dei Marmi but had found that the two restaurants within walking distance weren’t what we wanted; Pizza Orlando was terrible and Ristorante Madeo was too expensive.
The hotel receptionist recommended Trattoria Buonamico and so we put the address into the sat nav and drove over to Viareggio. Parking nearby was easy, although that was just after 7pm and I think it would be harder to find a spot from 8:30 onward.
It was a Saturday night and we didn’t have a reservation and we were dismayed to find reservation cards with times and names on, what seemed like, all the tables. But the owner found us a table by moving a few reservation cards around. It helped that we were early.
A half litre carafe of house red was EUR 6 and a large bottle of San Pellegrino was EUR 3. This was a welcome relief from the Forte dei Marmi restaurants.
The Tordelli (looked a lot like ravioli) was delicious, although the pasta was slightly thicker than we expected – maybe that is why it’s not called ravioli or it’s a Tuscan style. We shared a fish main as we we’d eaten two big plates of antipasto in the fantastic roadside café Balderi Marco. The fish was excellent, although the serving plate was cold. But this was still the best place we’d found and we made a reservation for 7:30 pm the next evening. The next evening’s food was even better.
After dinner we took a walk along the river and out along the harbour. Viareggio is fantastically picturesque and has a much better atmosphere than Forte dei Marmi, with families eating fresh fish from stalls along the quayside.
The next evening, a Sunday, there weren’t so many reservation cards on tables. This time we had:
Maccheroni al Buonamico – thin pasta squares with fish and green tomatoes
Linguine ai coltellaci – Linguine with razor clams
Seabass with artichokes and potatoes
Plus the half litre carafe and San Pellegrino
Everything was excellent and fish was on a warm plate. Total EUR 54.
Trattoria Buonamico
Via Saint Andrea 27
Viareggio, Tuscany, Italy
Tel 0584 943266
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