Likened to the Côte d’Azur, come and rub shoulders with the Italian elite in Forte dei Marmi, writes Kate Wicker I arrive at the Italian resort of Forte dei Marmi, which sits pretty on the Tuscan coastline, just as the beach clubs are unpacking their sunbeds to position on immaculately raked sands. In late April it’s still a little chilly in the morning, but by lunchtime I’m settling down in a deckchair to order a Campari spritz at sun-dappled Alpemare, the beach club belonging to legendary Italian tenor, Andrea Bocelli. Truth is, in August I’d be lucky to get a seat here, as this is the most sought-after of Forte dei Marmi’s bagnos, where the rich and famous mingle over seafood lunches.
Today, though, I have the restored 1920s bathing gem, with turquoise-blue changing huts and elegant cabanas , all to myself, and the invitation from the friendly waiter is to “fai con calma (take it easy)”. READ MORE: Get away from the tourists in Italy Although tourism began here in the late 1800s, it was the likes of Sophia Loren who put the resort on the map, while holidaying in the 1960s. Once Luciano Visconti and Giorgio Armani snapped up villas here, its stylish fate was sealed.
Attractive pastel-hued villas, third and fourth-generation owned, make up the bulk of the town, but there have been some notable foreign interlopers, among them Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose cream villa circled with cypress trees sits in Vittoria Apuana, Forte’s prettiest neigh.
