Discover the Tuscan seaside resort beloved by Italy’s upper class | Canada Voices

“I’m sorry.”

Before we’ve even ordered lunch, Salvatore Madonna has spotted something I completely missed.

He smooths a hand across the crisp white tablecloth beside Hotel Byron’s pool, studying the slightest indentation in the linen before quietly suggesting another table.

It’s an almost imperceptible gesture, but one that tells me everything I need to know about life in Forte dei Marmi.

In this Tuscan seaside town, where generations of artists, literary giants and celebrities have come to escape the spotlight, luxury speaks softly.

Mr. Madonna is the owner of Hotel Byron, a boutique hotel set inside a graceful villa built in 1892 as the summer home of an Italian noble family. Named after the English poet Lord Byron, who travelled through this corner of Tuscany in the early 19th century, the property has been in the Madonna family since 1990.

Over plates of freshly caught seafood, he explains why generations of Italy’s wealthiest families have returned here every summer.

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“People arrive with their Ferraris,” he says. “They park their car, put on shorts and a T-shirt, get on bicycles and go around the town. They don’t need to show off.”

Then he smiles.

“I was brought here by my father. I brought my children here. Probably they will bring their children, too.”

Unlike Capri, Portofino or the Amalfi Coast, where overtourism has transformed summer into spectacle, Forte dei Marmi remains remarkably Italian and largely unknown to North Americans.

The Agnelli family, founders of the Fiat automotive empire, spent their summers here, along with late fashion designer Giorgio Armani, tenor Andrea Bocelli and public figures who prize discretion over display.

Forte dei Marmi takes its name from the Fortino, an 18th-century fortress built to both defend the coast and support Tuscany’s flourishing marble trade.

For centuries, enormous blocks of marble were dragged down from the Apuan Alps and gathered beside the sea before beginning their journey across Europe. The town’s pier, completed in the late 19th century, was built to simplify that final step – loading some of the world’s most coveted stone onto waiting ships.

Today, the 275-metre pier offers one of the best views in town. Surfers wait patiently for waves, fishermen cast lines into the sea and couples linger at sunset, with the marble mountains forming a dramatic backdrop.

Back in the centre of town, life revolves around Piazza Marconi, where one of Italy’s best-known open-air markets takes over every Wednesday morning (and Sundays during the summer). Italians travel from across Tuscany to browse stalls piled high with discounted cashmere, embroidered linens, handmade leather sandals, ceramics and vintage treasures.

Here, impeccably coiffed signore glide past on bicycles carrying baskets with flowers, while men in linen shirts the colour of salmon and cloudless skies somehow never break a bead of sweat.

By afternoon, life shifts toward the sea. Elegant beach clubs stretch along the shoreline, from glamorous outlets charging hundreds of euros for a private cabana to the municipal Le Dune del Forte, where you can book a sunbed for about €30.

Or simply cycle 10 minutes west along the waterfront promenade to Spiaggia Libera Le Dune, one of Forte dei Marmi’s free public beaches, where locals spread towels beside the sea without spending a euro. Either way, the backdrop is the same: the Tyrrhenian Sea on one side and the impossible-to-ignore Apuan Alps on the other.

At first glance they appear capped with snow, until you realize the dazzling white mountains, veined with soft grey, are solid marble, the same prized stone the ancient Romans quarried and Michelangelo personally selected before carving David.

Thanks to its exceptionally fine crystal structure, marble from the Tuscan town of Carrara allowed sculptors to carve delicate fingers, flowing drapery and expressive faces without the stone fracturing. Today, it remains one of the world’s most prized building materials.

The best part is Carrara is only about 30 minutes away from Forte dei Marmi. Soon after leaving the beach, I’m rattling up the mountain in a four-by-four on a €15 guided tour of the quarries. Visitors can also choose rugged jeep safaris that venture deeper into the mountains or guided hikes led by geologists.

Nearly 200 quarries are scattered across these mountains. Most of the range is now protected within the Apuan Alps Regional Park, part of the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network, leaving only a small portion available for marble extraction.

Here I learn that modern quarrying is remarkably precise. Instead of blasting the mountain apart, workers use steel cables embedded with industrial diamonds to slice through the stone. Yet every cut remains a gamble: hidden fractures stay invisible until a block finally breaks free.

Almost nothing goes to waste. Even broken marble is crushed into calcium carbonate and recycled into everything from toothpaste and cosmetics to paint and paper.

A few kilometres farther lies Colonnata, where marble shapes the local cuisine as well as the landscape.

Quarrymen once survived on bread and lardo di Colonnata, pork fat cured for months inside hand-carved marble vats. Today that humble lunch carries Protected Geographical Indication status and is considered one of Tuscany’s prized delicacies.

It’s already evening when I arrive for dinner in Pietrasanta, a medieval town only seven minutes away from the centre of Forte dei Marmi. Known as Little Athens, the town has become a centre of marble sculpture, drawing artists from every continent.

Its streets feel like an open-air museum. Monumental sculptures rise beside ancient churches, while behind modest workshop doors, hammers still ring against marble as they have for generations.

As dusk settles over the piazza, marble dust catches the last of the light before drifting softly into the evening air.

Only a few hours earlier, I had watched those same mountains surrender another flawless block of stone.

Here, I watch someone begin the slow work of setting free the sculpture within.

If you go

The closest airport to Forte dei Marmi is Pisa International Airport, a 40-minute drive away. Alternatively, fly into Florence Airport, about a 90-minute drive. If arriving by train, the seaside town is about three hours from Rome or about two hours from Florence. The Forte dei Marmi–Seravezza–Querceta rail station is about four kilometres from the town centre.

Once in Forte dei Marmi, most visitors get around by bicycle. Rental bikes are widely available and the town’s flat terrain and dedicated cycling paths make them the easiest way to explore. Guided excursions or a rental car are the best way to visit nearby Carrara, Pietrasanta and the Versilia coast.

The writer received a two-night stay at Hotel Byron, which did not review or approve this article. Stories are based on merit; The Globe does not guarantee coverage.