A few kilometres from Pietrasanta, along the path on the coast, you can find Forte dei Marmi, the capital of worldliness in the region of Versilia.
The famous bars have been forming for decades the summer retreat of great entrepreneurs, sports champions, important historical figures and people from the show business. Persons such as members of the Agnelli and Siemens families usually spent their summer vacations in Forte dei Marmi, as well as the philosopher Giovanni Gentile, the physicist Guglielmo Marconi, the writer Riccardo Bacchelli, the sculptor Henry Moore and even Mina, the queen of Italian music.
In the enchanting village, which was named Forte dei Marmi after the small fortress built in 1788 to protect the marbles from the Apuan Alps before shipping, green areas dominate, with many parks and streets lined with trees that swarm with bars and high end fashion shops.
Great architects of the calibre of Giò Ponti and Giovanni Michelucci have left their mark on Forte dei Marmi with absolutely luxurious and impressive villas, starting from the villa of the Agnelli family, which has now become the Augustus Hotel & Resort.
There is no lack of artistic marks in town, such as the museum for satire and caricatures, one of the most important museums in the world of his kind.
The lovers of worldliness should not fear of being bored in Forte dei Marmi, with its fashionable and exclusive bars, in which fun is an everyday rule (or actually every night’s rule). Those who prefer sports should not miss the opportunity of tiresome tennis matches in the dedicated clubs, long trips on the bike on the long bike track which follows the entire coastline of Versilia, healthy walks between pines along the different pathways of the Versilia region, the famous Palio dei Bagni (a rollerblade race held in August among the lifeguards of the bathing establishments) or jumping into the free skatepark of the town.
Forte dei Marmi is not only famous for the beauty of its beaches and its old town, but also thanks to its markets, such as the ones antique market or the market of Piazza Marconi, and for its celebrations, such as the one of Sant’Ermete, which is held in honour of the patron of the town on the evening of the 27th of August each year. The tradition is to ignite a big fire in the central Piazza Garibaldi, with a fair and a pyrotechnical show on the pier the next day.
Therefore, those who want to stay in Pietrasanta will have plenty of choices, being able to enjoy the perfect position of the city, in the middle of the innumerable possibilities that the fantastic territory of Versilia offers to its tourists.