Forte dei Marme, Italy

We arrived in the sea town of Forte dei Marmi an hour and a half outside of Florence in northern Tuscany.  In the beginning of the 19th century many wealthy families from Tuscany chose to vacation here for their summer holidays, and today, I would consider it the St. Tropez of Italy.  Although we didn't see Andrea Bocelli (he is a resident of the town) at any local beaches, we still thoroughly enjoyed our stay.

We stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast called the Forte Inn, located about three blocks from the ocean.

The beautiful rooftop terrace at the Forte Inn

                 

Francisco, our host, had free beach cruisers for us to use, which came in handy since it is easiest to get around by bicycle.

Out for an early morning bicycle ride before going to the beach

The coastline along Forte dei Marmi is miles of beach clubs (over 100!) as far as the eye can see. During our two day staywe did what the locals do during the summer...enjoy the beach and work on our golden tans.  Each club provides private changing rooms, showers, lockers, umbrellas, sun beds, and food.  Most Italians stay loyal to their favorite beach club, coming back year after year, and we decided to support Franciscos favorite beach club called "Marco".  They provided us with great service, and all the amenities we needed for only 15 euro a day.  We strolled up and down the ocean front looking at all the different beach clubs...we probably walked at least 4 miles.

Beach clubs stretching out to the next town

We stopped for lunch at the famous Augustus Lido Beach club, which was only about a tenth of a mile down the beach. The Bambaissa restaurant had delicious spaghetti with clams, and ravioli that we enjoyed.  Next time we go, we will have to check out their seafood buffet, it looked pretty sensational.

In the evenings we enjoyed biking into the glamorous town square that was filled with rodeo drive stores and packed into a quaint street.  If you enjoy people watching, Forte is definitely a place to visit, because all the women are dressed in high fashion, and all the men are driving fancy cars.

High end stores and high end cars...every womans and mans dream

We found our favorite traditional Italian trattoria in Forte dei Marmi.  It was called Al Bocconcino, and we ate there for dinner two nights in a row.  The restaurant is mostly locals, and you can come here to listen to Italian conversations and people watch. The food was very reasonably priced.  Their pizza oven was amazing, and we highly recommend their pizzas and calzones!

Amazing fresh seafood pizza

Jordan liked his calzone

We found a really great gelato shop to get our daily indulgence.  Cervino gelateria had some pretty dang good nutella and dark chocolate chunk ice cream.

After a few days of relaxing in this little slice of heaven it was time to head to our next adventure in Cinque Terra.