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Effetto Venezia is the most important summer festival, it takes place during the first days of August amidst the canals, squares and bridges of Venezia Nuova. The event includes many initiatives which animate the quarter: stalls of artisans and collectors, street performers, acrobats, exhibits and charming boat rides in the canals.

Effetto Venezia

L'Effetto Venezia è la tradizionale e più importante festa d'estate che ogni anno si svolge nell'antico quartiere della città nei primi giorni di Agosto. Numerose sono le iniziative che animano i canali, le piazzette e i ponti di questo suggestivo angolo livornese che, proprio per queste sue caratteristiche, venne chiamato "La Nuova Venezia": dalla musica al teatro, dalle iniziative espositive a quelle enogastronomiche, dai mercatini dell'artigianato e del modernariato alle suggestive escursioni in battello nei "Fossi Medicei".
Ci si potrà tuffare nella festa e lasciarsi sedurre dalle mille attrattive o anche, varcato un vecchio portone, entrare nell'atrio silenzioso di uno dei tanti palazzi storici che la Venezia ci offre, non soltanto in queste notti un po' speciali.

Effetto Venezia - August Effetto Venezia is a summer festival with dozens of small and large-scale initiatives. It is named for the old quarter where it is held, built along the Medicean canals. The event includes many initiatives which animate the quarter: stalls of artisans and collectors, street performers, acrobats, exhibits and charming boat rides in the canals. Accademia Navale e Città di Livorno Trophy-April A various category sailboat race held in the sea in front of the Navy Academy. The race has increased in size and now involves competitors from all over the world, with an average of 500 crews. Performances, exhibits and concerts accompany the event for the entire week. Palio Marinaro-July Palio Marinaro is Livorno's main rowing race. The Palio Marinaro is raced the second Sunday in July in the sea in front of Terrazza Mascagni. The city's quarters challenge each other for the prize on 10 oar “gozzi”, typical 10 meter boats. The event concludes with the award ceremony for the crews and a great city party.

Livorno (traditionally known in English as Leghorn), is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno and the third-largest port on the western coast of Italy 18Km southwest of Pisa. History and the sea have made Livorno one of the most unique cities in Italy and certainly the most open. Forget about the typical picture postcard Tuscan cities, Livorno goes against the trend. Livorno is a port city, it has always been an oasis of tolerance for all those persecuted for their religion, politics or race, who have enriched the city with a wide range of cultures and customs. In the back streets you will find a network of picturesque canals and hump-backed bridges. The sea is an integral part of the city. It can be seem in the promenade which inspired famous painters, elegant fin-de-siècle beach concessions and Art Nouveau villas which hosted the international elite for vacations, and you will find plenty of places to sample top-quality seafood.

The closest airport to Livorno is Pisa's Galileo Galilei International Airport in Pisa. A shuttle bus will take you to the Pisa Centrale train station where trains leave for Livorno. Otherwise, you can fly to Florence or Roma Fiumicino, and go to Livorno by train.

Livorno is on the Rome-Genoa line with frequent trains in both directions. Livorno is also connected to Florence by direct trains, the trip lasts around one and a half hours. See the Trenitalia website for train schedules.

From Rome take A12 Roma-Civitavecchia freeway and continue on highway E80 (the Aurelia) until Livorno. From Milan take the A1 freeway to Parma, then the A15 for La Spezia, and the A12 to Livorno. From Florence take the Firenze-Pisa-Livorno (Fi-Pi-Li) until the city centre. From Bologna take the A1 freeway until the Firenze-Signa exit and then the Firenze-Pisa-Livorno highway.

Faced with the present-day city of Livorno, with its industrial installations and modern buildings, it is easy to forget that this is a town with a long history. First mentioned in the records in 904, it was for long the port for Pisa, but after the Pisans' defeat in 1405 it passed into the hands of the Genoese, who sold it to Florence in 1421 for 100,000 gold florins. From this time on Livorno was ruled by the Medici family who for more than three centuries transformed the small village into one of the most important ports of the Mediterranean. At the end of the 16th century Francesco I assigned Buontalenti with the task of making Livorno a full-fledged city and he made it able to house 20,000 people inside the walls and 300 ships in the port. Near the defensive pile of the Old Fortress, a new fortress, together with the town-walls and the system of navigable canals, was then built. By the end of the 18th century had become the largest town in Tuscany after Florence. Soon afterwards the town greeted a lively multiracial community, thanks to the politics of Ferdinando de Medici. In fact, he encouraged the reception of the exiled people who were subject to political or religious persecutions. Thus the foreign communities, called “Nazioni” flourished; primarily Jews, who lived here free from the humiliation of a ghetto, but also Greeks, Armenians, English, French, Dutch, Spaniards, Portuguese, Russians, Muslims and Waldensians. Many remains can still be seen of this old cosmopolitan city: the various churches of the Nazioni, cemeteries, cuisine and Livorno's inhabitants. Livorno was declared a free port, where goods were completely exempt from taxes. In 1629 Ferdinando II had a new quarter built by Venetian masters which connected the 23 islands by bridges: this quarter is now called Venezia Nuova. The year 1736 marked the end of the Medici dynasty and the rise of the Grand Dukes of Lorraine, connected to Austria's's Hapsburgs. The city began to expand outside the Medici walls, slowly losing its city-fortress appearance. With the unity of Italy (1868), the town lost its quality as a free port and its economical development diminished, reaching then the balance and the development degree of our days. During the Second World War the town suffered heavy damage, particularly to its historic buildings, and now preserves only a few buildings of any age. The Venice district has managed to preserve most of its original town planning and architectural features such as the bridges, the narrow lanes, the noblemen's houses and a dense network of canals which once linked the port to its storehouses. Livorno was the birthplace of the painter Amedeo Modigliani (1844-1920) and the composer Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945).