The Cittadella del Carnevale of Viareggio, from Torre del Lago

Getting there

The Cittadella is on the northern edge of Viareggio, at via Santa Maria Goretti 5, next to the Variante Aurelia, on the opposite side of the town from the sea: from Torre del Lago you head north on the Variante Aurelia.

• With the motorhome, on an ordinary day: the Comune writes that parking at the Cittadella is free. On the evenings of the summer events there are a lot of people: the 2025 Notte dei Bozzetti, wrote La Nazione, had filled the Cittadella to overflowing
• On the day of the masked parades the motorhome does not go into the centre: the streets around the seafront avenues are closed, and the website of the Fondazione Carnevale advises public transport or arriving early, because parking spaces are reduced. In February the campsites of Torre del Lago are closed, and you sleep at La Sirenetta, the area open all year at the Darsena of Viareggio: from there you walk to the seafront avenues in a quarter of an hour. In summer the Cittadella can be reached with the motorhome, which finds parking there; for the Passeggiata and the seafront avenues, on the other hand, from the campsites of Torre del Lago the simplest way is the regional train, from Torre del Lago Puccini station to Viareggio station, in five minutes: Viareggio station is in piazza Dante, and the sea, the Fondazione writes, is a thirteen-minute walk away
• If the motorhome goes to Viareggio anyway: for the 2026 Carnival Mover, the Comune's parking company, reserved the piazzale Maria Valtorta for motorhomes, between via Udine and via Fratti, on the sea side: by booking only on the Comune's parking portal, 25 euros a day, with the ticket valid from 8:00 to 23:59 on the chosen day. The same year the piazzale Paolo VI was for cars, at 15 euros, and the Cittadella car park for tourist coaches only, at 60 euros. For the night you go back to La Sirenetta, or to Parkamaiore, at Lido di Camaiore, also open all year

Practical information

The Cittadella is visited on a summer morning, when the museum is open, or on one of the summer evenings when the floats come out; the masked parades are another day out, in February.

Contacts

Where it is

Viareggio · Toscana

You set off from

Notes

• The Cittadella: the elliptical square, dedicated to Burlamacco, is enclosed by the sixteen hangars where the floats are built and kept, with the Museo del Carnevale, the Carnevalotto collection and the documentation centre of the Fondazione Carnevale. Access to the square is free all year, the Fondazione writes; you enter the workshops on the guided tours. In winter the Giostra Viareggina, the Viareggio merry-go-round, turns in the square: in January 2026, Monday to Friday from 14:00 to 18:00, Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00
• The Museo del Carnevale, on the first floor, tells the history of the festival with a timeline from 1873 to 2001, through documents and reconstructions: you see how carta a calco is made, how the mechanisms that move the floats work, the historic models and pieces of the allegorical constructions. There is a room devoted to Burlamacco, Ondina and Uberto Bonetti, with the costumes taken from the Commedia dell'Arte, and a screening room. The Cittadella also holds the Carnevalotto contemporary art collection, opened in 2012
• The museum's opening hours, according to the Comune and the Fondazione: in summer, from 10 June to 13 September, Wednesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 13:00, and on Saturday also from 15:00 to 19:00; the rest of the year Wednesday to Sunday from 15:00 to 19:00, and on Saturday also from 9:00 to 13:00. It is closed on Monday and Tuesday. Last entry is half an hour before closing. On the evenings of the summer events in the Cittadella, in 2026, the museum stayed open until midnight
• The museum ticket: 5 euros full price, in 2026 too; the Comune's price list, updated in January 2024, gives 3 euros reduced, for members of the Touring Club and the ACI and for holders of the Carta dello Studente Universitario, the Carta Edumusei or the Carta Regione Toscana, 4 euros each for groups and schools of 15 to 25 people, and free for children up to 11 accompanied by an adult, people with a disability with a companion and teachers with their classes. You buy it at the ticket office or online
• The guided tour of the museum and of Hangar 16, the Espace Gilbert: in 2026 the museum ran it on some Saturdays and Sundays, the last on 17 October at 10:30, at 10 euros from 11 years, 5 euros from 6 to 10 years and for people with a disability, free up to 5 years. The dates come out every month in the museum's activity calendar, on the Comune's website
• The papier-mâché workshops, for children from 5: in 2026 on Saturday afternoons, at 15:30 or 16:00, at 5 euros, by booking; in January while waiting for the Carnival, in October on a Halloween theme. In the same calendars there are other creative workshops, from 6 years, also at 5 euros
• The Carnival summer in 2026, three free events, according to the Comune: on Saturday 25 July the party with the four prize-winning floats of the 2026 Carnival, among them In bocca al lupo by Luca Bertozzi, the winner of the first category, with activities for children from 19:00, the museum open in the evening, with a guided tour at 20:15, free for holders of the museum ticket, 5 euros, to be booked, and the floats moving from 21:30 with lights, music and choreography; on Saturday 1 August the parade of the group masquerades and the individual masks of the 2026 edition in the Pineta di Ponente, the western pine wood, along viale Cadorna and viale Capponi, with the bands, Burlamacco, Ondina and the masks of the neighbourhoods, from late afternoon; on Monday 10 August, the night of San Lorenzo, the Notte dei Bozzetti among the hangars, where the float builders present the designs of the 2027 floats with choreography, costumes, music and projections. The summer parade in the pine wood, writes La Nazione, revives a tradition of 1927, taken up again in 2024. The summer 2026 programme did not include a parade of the floats along the seafront avenues
• The 2027 Carnival: the six masked parades along the seafront avenues are on Saturday 30 January, Thursday 4 February, giovedì grasso, the last Thursday of Carnival, Sunday 7 February, Tuesday 9 February, Shrove Tuesday, Sunday 14 February and Saturday 20 February 2027, according to the Fondazione Carnevale. The times come out with the programme. In 2026 the first parade opened with three cannon shots and ended with fireworks, three of the six parades were at night, giovedì grasso and two Saturdays, the Shrove Tuesday one was broadcast live on Rai 3, and the last parade, in the evening, ended with the announcement of the winners and fireworks. In bad weather a parade is postponed, and the ticket is valid for the new date
• Tickets for 2027: the season ticket for the six parades, which is not in your name, costs 40 euros full price and 30 euros reduced for children under 14 in advance sales, from 28 October to 24 December 2026, and 50 and 40 euros from 28 December to 30 January; there are 40,000 season tickets, and once they are gone no more are sold. They are sold at the Cittadella ticket office, in the participating Conad supermarkets of the Versilia and in the Farmacity pharmacies of Viareggio, and with the season ticket you get five 5 euro vouchers to spend in the Conad supermarkets of the Versilia in February. The ticket for a single parade is bought online on Vivaticket. Children up to 1.20 metres tall go in free. The stands have numbered seats and are paid for separately. Ticket office: 0584 580740, biglietteria@ilcarnevale.com
• The rioni: on Carnival days the town's neighbourhoods, such as the Darsena, Marco Polo and Croce Verde, take turns to hold their festa rionale, their neighbourhood party: they close the main streets, and from 19:00 to midnight there are open-air kitchens, music and shows. The dates are published by the Comune and the Fondazione with the Carnival programme
• The parade circuit is on the Passeggiata, the seafront avenues among the Liberty buildings, about two kilometres long: you go in with a ticket, and stand among the crowd as the floats go by, or sit in the stands. In 2026 the first parade brought about a hundred thousand people onto the avenues, wrote il Fatto Quotidiano. For people with a disability, the Fondazione writes, there is a reserved entrance in via Saffi, level with the Hotel Royal, with parking and a ramp
• The Torneo di Viareggio, the Coppa Carnevale, is the youth football tournament that bears the name of the festival and has been played in Viareggio since 1949

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