LA BELLA VITA
Life is definitely beautiful in Forte dei Marmi, where the rituals of summer are elevated with Italian flair, writes Andrew Glenn
Forte dei Marmi — or “marble fort” — is a postcard-perfect town on the Tuscan coast where, for generations, the smart set of Florence and Milan have descended for idyllic summers by the sea. Forte, as it’s referred to, enjoys a fabled history synonymous with artists, writers and Italian aristocracy. Set against the beautiful backdrop of the Apuan Alps — and just over an hour by car from Florence — it was in Forte dei Marmi that Thomas Mann reportedly penned
Death in Venice when he was a guest at the Hotel Regina. Sculptor Henry Moore frequented the resort in the 1960s searching for marble in nearby Carrara. Opera singer Andrea Bocelli lives here in a villa along the lungomare, the town’s five-kilometre waterfront. Across from his home is Alpemare, a bagno (beach club) that he owns, one of 98 bagni that line an impossibly wide beach with meticulously groomed sands.
“I’m lucky to be Italian, really lucky to be from Tuscany, but I feel incredibly lucky to live in Forte dei Marmi,” Bocelli has famously said of this Versilian idyll.
It’s as if time has stood still in Forte, or at least it pauses from June to August. Summer rituals remain constant for the generations of well-heeled Italians who return year after year. Bicycles are the preferred mode of transport; not jazzed-up mountain bikes but simple, old-fashioned ones with wicker baskets. The pace of life is beautifully slow, as you pedal down tiny streets lined with towering Italian stone pine trees.
On a typical summer morning locals ride into the town piazza, often along the bicycle track on the lungomare, elegantly but casually dressed, to enjoy a coffee at the Caffe Principe, a local institution where waiters in crisp white shirts and black ties have been serving coffee and Campari for decades.
The culture of sunbathing has been elevated to an art form in Forte, with bagni catering to a multitude of tastes and budgets. It’s all very civilised; guests are given lockable private cabins to get changed in before heading on to the sands to enjoy the day at their tenda (canopied cabana), usually set up with deck chairs and sun loungers. At some of the smarter clubs the tendas come with safes, luxuriously large towels and food service. There is an obsessive vigilance in keeping it all very orderly; bagni staff groom the sand at dawn and dusk, using large rakes to remove rubbish and create a “corduroy” effect on the sand. The blue-grey Tyrrhenian Sea is shallow and calm, perfect for children, and the almost guaranteed daily sunshine makes for perfect family holidays.
As the sun sets, the bicycles return along the lungomare; people venture back to the village for passeggiata: the ritual before dinner where locals walk into town to enjoy cocktails, shopping, or simply just to preen, see and be seen in their summer best. It’s all very stylish but not pretentious; think men and boys in pastel linen shirts, sleeves rolled loosely at the cuff; women in Dolce & Gabbana floral pleated skirts. Summer nights are languid and long in Forte, with boutiques like Prada and Gucci open past midnight.
To the south of the town centre is Roma Imperiale, the most elegant area, where palazzos, palezzinas and grand villas are hidden behind huge hedges. Gianni Agnelli, the late dashing Fiat tycoon, spent summers here in his youth, his father, Edoardo, having purchased the Villa Costanza in 1926. The family spent summers here for more than 30 years, becoming instrumental in putting Forte dei Marmi on the map for Italy’s glitterati. Today, you can retrace their glamorous footsteps by staying at their villa, which was transformed into an elegant five-star hotel in 1969 when it was acquired by the Hotel Augustus and Lido.
Unlike all the other palazzos along the waterfront, the Villa Agnelli, as it came to be known, had something no other villa did; a secret passageway under the lungomare. The Agnellis didn’t have to cross the road when they wanted to go to the beach, they simply walked under it. Today guests at the Augustus have exclusive use of this secret passage to access a super-chic beach club and the restaurant Bambaissa.
To the north of town is an area known as Vittoria Apuana, where the homes are less grand in scale but equally elegant. “If Roma Imperiale is Bel Air, then Vittoria Apuana is Santa Monica,” explains Vanessa Bonami, a New York native and Forte regular. Bonami has been coming here since she moved to Milan seven years ago with her husband, Francesco, an art curator.
“Forte is ‘down-low’ chic. This is