The Pearl of Versilia

In Forte dei Marmi you don’t get old: the long hot summers rip away all wounds and give back a healthy and carefree youth.
Isolde Kurz, writer

Forte dei Marmi has always been a unique spot, where you can forget the passing of time and everything slows down: it’s a special place, suspended between past and future. Here the mountains hug the beaches, culture meets good taste, art invades the streets, food is from starred restaurants. In Forte dei Marmi true luxury means leaving the car, taking your bike and feeling at home.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow are all one when bathing in the sea.

The sea is a friend with many faces: never boring, never repetitious, never the same.
Susanna Agnelli, entrepreneur and writer

The iconic wooden huts and the round sun-umbrellas welcome tourists with a harmonious and geometrical blast of colours. The sand, golden and spotless, goes gently down to the sea-shore. In the old bathing establishments you‘ll spend perfect days between the taste of the local cuisine and the serenity of a barefoot aperitif

Families are warmly welcomed and children can play in a safe and supervised location.

We, people of Forte dei Marmi, lose the horizon without our pier.
Fabio Genovesi, writer

In Forte dei Marmi time is marked by small daily rituals: a bike ride along the tree-lined avenues and the old villas in “Roma Imperiale”; the weekly market, with its fashionable stalls, the salted scones (focaccine) and “spaghetti alle arselle” (spaghetti with seafood); the tennis matches at the exclusive clubs, the aperitif in one of the many smart coffe-bars in the squares; an evening walk along the pier or among the glamorous shop-windows in the city centre.

To those who love good food and wine, Forte dei Marmi offers five starred restaurants within a territory of 9 km2: an extraordinary concentration which shows the passion for genuine raw materials and gourmet cuisine.

But Forte dei Marmi is also entertainment and tradition: the ancient “Palio dei Bagni” (lifeboats race) on the historic “pattìni” (the typical lifeboat of Versilia), the patronal feast of Sant’Ermete with the picturesque firework show from the pier, the Festival of Political Satire, the art exhibitions at the Fort, the open-air concerts and the magic Christmas, with the glittering market-stalls which paint the streets of the town red and gold.

Under the thick blue of the sky some sea birds leave and never stop because all the images carry written “further“.
Eugenio Montale, poet, Nobel Prize

It’s impossible to get bored in Forte dei Marmi. The old sailing schools, the exclusive tennis clubs, the golf courses surrounded by nature, are wonderful opportunities to practice outdoor sports.

Surfers ride the foaming waves on their boards both in winter and in summer. The long walks in the green of the gardens, in the pine-woods or along the seafront, offer unforgettable moments in every season.

Everybody’s motto is “a beach, a bike”.

In the raw material the artwork is already hidden. Sculpting means removing what is in excess and restoring it to the light.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor

In the XVIth century, Michelangelo Buonarroti chose the best marble blocks for his works in the nearby marble quarries on Mount Altissimo. This was the origin of Forte dei Marmi. A port for the precious stone, a link between mountain and sea, through the “Via del Marmo“ (marble road).

When the Habsburg-Lorena arrived at the end of the 1700s, they built the little fort, which gave the name to the town. The beach was discovered by tourists only in the middle of the 1800’s; people who wanted to escape from mass tourism started to come to Forte dei Marmi, to discover an unspoilt Eden, rich in culture, nature and serenity — three values which have remained unchanged since then.

I remember the summers with Montale in Forte dei Marmi. We met every day, Montale drew relentlessly: the sea, the Apuan Alps... he used everything, from wine to lipstick.
Carla Fracci, étoile

In the early 1900s, Forte dei Marmi was a popular destination for artists, entrepreneurs, and well-known Italian and international personalities. With its perfect fusion of culture and nature, hospitality and tradition, tranquility and entertainment, Forte became a myth.

The evenings at La Capannina, the meetings of Forte’s artistic/intellectual coterie at the Quarto Platano, the “roaring” summers of the ’30s and ’60s all contributed to making Forte the jewel of Versilia. Today, 19th-century Villa Bertelli, flanked by the Fortino and the municipal library, is at the heart of cultural life in Forte with lively programs featuring encounters, concerts, readings, and exhibitions.

Art and inspiration are everywhere in Forte: in vistas of the city streets, in the special light off the mountains, on a lonely walk on the windy beach in winter.

The mountains of Versilia: laughing or grim? Here’s something you’ll never understand. A bit crazy in shape and always painted with incredible hues, with that pink colour and those dry flashes of marble which filter as if by chance.
Pier Paolo Pasolini, film director and writer

Thanks to its strategic position, Forte dei Marmi is an ideal starting point to visit the best locations in Liguria and Toscana: Pietrasanta, city of art, surrounded by olive groves; Florence and Pisa, gems of Italian art and history; Portovenere, Portofino, Cinque Terre, where luxury and unspoilt nature meet; Carrara with its marble quarries and sculpture workshops.

Walking or cycling along the trails on the Apuan Alps and Cinque Terre or along the bike paths of the Gulf of Poets, it’s easy to explore the secrets of our territory.

The cellars of Bolgheri, Castagneto Carducci and Suvereto are just a few kilometres away: this is the area of production of the best Tuscan wines, amongst the most exclusive and famous in the world.

I’m lucky to be Italian, really lucky to be from Tuscany, but I feel incredibly lucky to live in Forte dei Marmi.
Andrea Bocelli, tenor and philanthropist

Forte dei Marmi is not just summer, sea and glamour.

When the streets empty, the beach is lonely and the libeccio wind blows steadfastly, Forte has a kind of magic you don’t expect. In winter the town encourages personal reflection or reading, and long walks along the seashore.

It’s peace without melancholy, silence without loneliness. That’s why a lot of people have chosen to live in Forte dei Marmi: because the quality of time and life are special, forever.