Our story

In 1880, Versilia was nothing more than a swampy, wild land, frequented mainly for hunting and fishing. In those years, an engineer, Francesco Garré, was called to Versilia to design and build the Viareggio aqueduct and decided to purchase, from the famous lawyer Pellerano di Carrara, the whole area extending between ll Secco and Fossa dell’Abate.

The estate, where our beautiful villa is located today, was disseminated with rush daffodils and unhealthy marshes with destitute houses and hunting lodges, but Francesco bought it all the same, in order to donate it, in equal parts, to his children Fiovo, Augusto and Riccardo.

Fiovo Garrè transformed his part of the land, using the original hunting and fishing lodge to build a splendid Art Nouveau-style residential dwelling, in vogue between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was the modern style of the time, devoted to a return to nature and the search for beauty, of which the present-day Hotel Europa is still a splendid example. The dwelling was later used as a hotel with the name of Albergo Regina.

In 1926, the hotel was sold to the Matteoni brothers, who left part of the estate to their children and sold the remainder to Mr Giugni from Lido di Camaiore. The property was then purchased again by the Matteoni heirs in 1955, who launched the business with the name of Albergo Europa. In 1965, the family rented out the hotel, which changed tenants several times, until it finally closed for good in 1972.

In 2000, the Hotel Europa reopened and went back to accommodating tourists from all over the world. The charm of the ancient residence is still alive and, in its rooms, you can still breathe in some of that nineteenth-century air typical of the Belle Époque.