The hubbub of a harbour, the creak of ships and the bustle of traders from across the Mediterranean is not the usual backing track of Tuscany, but then Livorno isn’t your regular Tuscan town—and it’s proud of it too!

Yes, this elongated port on the edge of the Tyrrhenian Sea has its fair share of old Italian homes, Medici palaces and flagstone alleyways, all criss-crossing an historic district of crumbling stuccoed facades and fin de siècle masterpieces, but that’s not it. No sir, Livorno is a living and breathing place too; with families crowding the Terrazza Mascagni for brilliant sunsets, a bustling Mercato Centrale, cafes alive with cacciucco seafood broths, and swinging lines of washing strewn out over the cobblestone streets overhead.

Don’t miss the bubbling area of La Venezia, with its sun-kissed Piazza Grande and humble Dominican Church facades, guarded by the bulwarks of the Fortress Vecchia. The other fortress in town, Fortezza Nuova rubs shoulders with the Old English Cemetery, a pretty garden of cypresses and lichen-spotted graves that represents the oldest of its kind in all of Italy. And on the edges of town, your Livorno tour guide can point out villages like Montenero and the attractive districts of Ardenza and Antignano deeper into the heartlands of Tuscany.