Tuscany and Liguria
Viareggio's Passeggiata, and an earring missing by the end of the evening
Viareggio's Passeggiata is a pedestrian avenue by the sea, lined with boutiques, cafés and Art Nouveau buildings.
Somewhere between the canal end of the Passeggiata and the table where you ate, an earring came out. The avenue is for people on foot, so the evening can be walked again in the same order: the café where you stopped, the side you kept to, the cross street where you turned inland or into the Pineta di Ponente.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Viareggio, Forte dei Marmi or Monterosso al Mare with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the place, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Farther along the Versilia coast, this page covers Forte dei Marmi, with its Pontile, its seafront and the squares in the centre. In Monterosso al Mare, a Cinque Terre village on the railway from La Spezia to Levanto, it covers the station, Via Fegina, Piazza Garibaldi and the lanes of the old centre.
Your evening, pinned in order
Ask at the shops and cafés you went into, in case the earring was found and kept behind a counter. Then drop pins where the evening turned: where you joined the Passeggiata, where you crossed it, where you sat down. Photograph the earring you still have, front and back, since the pair is the clearest description we can pass on.
On the Passeggiata, the nearest cross street places you. In Forte dei Marmi, the Pontile, Via Spinetti and the main squares lie on one short walk through the centre. Monterosso has two parts, Fegina with the station and the old centre, with a promontory between them.
Places we cover in Tuscany and Liguria
- Viareggio
- The Passeggiata, Viareggio
- Viale Regina Margherita, Viareggio
- The Burlamacca canal, Viareggio
- The Darsena, Viareggio
- The free beach by the port, Viareggio
- Pineta di Ponente, Viareggio
- The Lecciona beach and the Macchia Lucchese, Viareggio
- Forte dei Marmi
- The Pontile, Forte dei Marmi
- The square at the entrance to the Pontile, Forte dei Marmi
- The seafront promenade, Forte dei Marmi
- Via Spinetti, Forte dei Marmi
- Piazza Garibaldi, Forte dei Marmi
- Piazza Marconi, Forte dei Marmi
- Piazza Dante, Forte dei Marmi
- Le Dune free beach, Vittoria Apuana
- Monterosso al Mare
- Monterosso railway station
- Via Fegina, Monterosso al Mare
- Fegina beach, Monterosso al Mare
- Tragagià beach in the old harbour, Monterosso al Mare
- Piazza Garibaldi, Monterosso al Mare
- The old town lanes, Monterosso al Mare
Seafront, pier, squares and platforms
Viareggio and Forte dei Marmi are in Versilia, in Tuscany. Monterosso al Mare is one of the Cinque Terre villages, in Liguria.
The Passeggiata and Viale Regina Margherita, Viareggio
The Passeggiata is the pedestrian seafront avenue, lined with boutiques, historic cafés and Art Nouveau buildings. Viale Regina Margherita is at its canal end. The Fausto Coppi cycle path runs parallel to the seafront, so if you were on a bike, tell us whether you rode the path or walked the avenue.
The Burlamacca canal, the Darsena and the free beach, Viareggio
The original quarter of Viareggio grew up around Torre Matilde along the Burlamacca canal, where fishermen and small boats still moor. By the port is the Darsena quarter, and a small free beach lies between the port and Viale Europa. Further on towards Torre del Lago, the free beach of the Lecciona is reached through the pinewoods of the Macchia Lucchese, with wooden walkways across the wet hollows between the dunes.
Pineta di Ponente, Viareggio
The Pineta di Ponente is the town's urban park under the pines, a short walk from the sea, with kiosks, ice-cream shops, bike hire and play areas.
The Pontile and the square at its entrance, Forte dei Marmi
The Pontile runs from the beach out to sea over a sandy bottom and is for people on foot only. The round square at its entrance holds the bronze Controvento, and the remains of the Mancina, the crane that once loaded marble, stand across the seafront avenue.
Via Spinetti and Piazza Garibaldi, Forte dei Marmi
Via Spinetti, the main street, is lined with palms and shops and leads to Piazza Garibaldi, the historic heart of the town, where the Fortino stands. The square has benches and a café where people stop for breakfast or an aperitif.
Piazza Marconi, Piazza Dante and the seafront promenade, Forte dei Marmi
Piazza Marconi is a round square around a dense pinewood with children's playgrounds, and the open-air market is held there. Piazza Dante has gardens facing the Town Hall. The seafront promenade leads back to the Pontile. Towards Cinquale, at Vittoria Apuana, the town's free beach, Le Dune, is all sand, with natural dunes and a pinewood behind it.
The station, Fegina beach and the old centre, Monterosso al Mare
Monterosso is in two parts: modern Fegina, where the station stands on Via Fegina, and the medieval old centre, with a promontory and a tunnel between them. Fegina has the only wide sandy beach of the five villages, with the Gigante statue at the end of its promenade. In the old centre, narrow lanes wind around the church of San Giovanni Battista, and the small harbour where the ferries land has the free Tragagià beach.
How a lost earring becomes a plan
Written up by the person you talk to
One person reads your WhatsApp messages and writes the detectorist's brief from them, cafés, cross streets and all.
A route rather than a radius
Shop doorways, a bench in a square, a carriage door, a place on the pier: your pins are joined up in the order you passed them, and the detectorist follows that line.
An evening with no clear stops
If you walked for hours and cannot say where you stopped, that is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
Costs spelled out first
We explain the costs before any search is booked. Whether that is worth it for one earring of a pair is your call.
Paving, sand and a pier over the sea
Many places here are streets and squares. The sand is on Viareggio's free beaches, at Le Dune, on Fegina beach and under the water at Forte dei Marmi.
Paving, steps and town squares
The Passeggiata, the squares of Forte dei Marmi and the lanes of Monterosso are paved town ground. Tell us whether it went on paving, gravel, grass or steps.
Sand on shore and in the sea
Off the Passeggiata the sea bed slopes gradually over sand, and at Forte dei Marmi the sea bed is low, with sand under the Pontile. On the free beach by the port, give your distance from the port.
Platforms and trains
Monterosso station stands on Via Fegina. If it went as you got on or off a train, the platform and the street outside are what we plan around.
Questions about Viareggio, Forte dei Marmi and Monterosso
Only one earring came back from our walk along the Passeggiata to dinner.
The Passeggiata runs from the Burlamacca canal to Via Marco Polo, so which part of it you walked matters more than its name. Tell us the cross street where you joined it and the one where you left it, and send a picture of the earring you still have.
Taking a photo of the Apuan Alps from the Pontile at Forte dei Marmi, I lost my grip and the phone dropped into the sea.
The sea floor around the pier is sand. The detectorist needs to know how far out along the pier you were and which side you faced, counted from the round square at the entrance with the bronze Controvento. Pictures someone with you took at that moment help to place you on the pier.
I think my necklace came off on the train from Vernazza, somewhere between getting on and stepping out at Monterosso.
Ask the railway about it first, because anything left on board travels on along the line between La Spezia and Levanto. If you felt a tug as you stepped down, the platform at Monterosso and Via Fegina outside the station are ground a detectorist can go over. Say which end of the train you rode in and which way you turned out of the station.
My ring was on when I lay down on Fegina beach in Monterosso and gone after a swim.
Tell us whether you were at the station end of the beach or nearer the Gigante, which stands at the end of the promenade, and in front of which stretch of umbrellas or free sand. Say whether you swam and how far out.
My watch was tucked into a shoe on the free beach by the port in Viareggio, and the shoe came back without it.
That free beach is the small stretch between the port and Viale Europa. Pin where your towels lay and say how far along the water you walked to swim. Describe the strap and the face so the detectorist can recognise it.
I washed my hands at the drinking fountain in Piazza Garibaldi in Forte dei Marmi, and afterwards my wedding band was gone.
Piazza Garibaldi is the square the Fortino stands in, at the heart of the town, and the fountain there gives drinking water. Say where you stood at it, where you sat or walked next, and whether you carried on along Via Spinetti.
While I tried on rings at a market stall in Piazza Marconi, my Oura ring slipped off.
The market fills the round square of Piazza Marconi and the pines around it. Ask the stallholder first, in case it was put aside. Then pin the stall's place in the square and mention any bench under the trees you used.
Our car keys dropped from a pocket while the children played in the Pineta di Ponente.
The Pineta di Ponente is a town park a short walk from the sea, with play areas and kiosks. Mark the play area you used and the kiosk you bought from, and tell us what hangs on the key ring, because a fob or a metal tag makes the set easier to pick out.
A bracelet went missing in the lanes of Monterosso's old centre, near San Giovanni Battista.
The old centre is a knot of narrow lanes around that church, across the promontory from Fegina and the station. Sketch your route from Piazza Garibaldi into the lanes, and send any holiday picture that shows the bracelet on you.
Tuscany and Liguria
Tell us where the evening went
A rough route is enough to begin with.
Start a WhatsApp chat with two things: what is missing, and the last spot you can picture it, be that a café table on the Passeggiata, the Pontile or the platform at Monterosso. Our first questions will be about that spot.