This is one of the best things about Italy in my opinion. They don’t take beauty for granted. Making sure a 1960s kooky typeface on a "fish shack” survives as intact as a Bernini masterpiece points to a national impulse to preserve, remember and hand culture down. I think this is quite a Jewish impulse too – and the similarity may not be at all incidental here, Italy being the birthplace of European Jewry.
Forte dei Marmi is a carefully cultivated vision of La Dolce Vita. Playful, chic and at times even decadently eerie. And as a Fellini superfan, I love leaning into this interpretation of what it feels like to be there.
During the weekend, La Serena hosted a party for its neighbours and hoteliers alike, to re-introduce themselves to the town after an impressive renovation of the property. Although the place mainly attracts non-European tourism, Italian families remain a strong component of the summer population of Forte dei Marmi. And, as creatures of habit, they need to be convinced to try new things.
I was talking to an ex-hippie from California who, as the conversation about Trump became more heated (from her end, I must add), was sliding down one side of the incredibly comfortable designer garden furniture, her twinkling prosecco seemingly attempting to escape from the side of her glass.
Next to her sat her ‘driver’: a timid young Russian man living in Paris, who was spending the summer with her.
The boutique hotel with the pool in the foreground[Missing Credit]
Marble sculpture in the hotel garden[Missing Credit]
A staircase in La Serena[Missing Credit]
Sitting under the Mediterranean pines, beside the sparkling kidney-shaped pool, with golden light bathing the Carrara marble accents of the garden, my mind drifted to the party dream sequence in Giulietta Degli Spiriti, my favourite Fellini film. Witches dance with aristocrats and prostitutes in feathered hats and suits, in never-ending jazzy loop. Forte dei Marmi can feel like a dazzling party that has gone on for decades too.
My favourite part of the trip was our excursion to the Carrara quarries. These are famed not only for their luminous, pure white marble, which has served as the raw material for the greatest artists and architects of history, but also as a backdrop to The Brutalist.
Cast your mind back to the scene where Adrien Brody’s László takes a mystical, drug-infused trip to the Carrara quarries to find the holy material for his great American construction. That’s where I was!
Standing at the edge of a sharp drop, 2,000-year-old white walls looming behind you, it is easy to understand where this mysticism comes from.
“Oh, yes! I drove them all the day up and down, and up and down and up and down!” said our tour guide, Mario, one hand gripping the wheel of the Jeep, the other smoking a cigarette out the window.
It is a treacherous trip only a few vehicles can make at a time.
Apparently, private tours of the quarries (closed to the general public) are not his main source of income; rather, it is driving film crews and their equipment up and down (and down and up) the mountain – there seems to be a steady stream of Hollywood mega-productions in the next couple of years. I’m not surprised; the location truly has a numinous quality.
We did manage to make it in one piece, however, and Mario dropped us off safely at Colonnata. Here, we visited the patron saint of the marble workers, St Bartholomew, in a chapel tucked away in the mountains, with misty mountain views.
Our final stop was lunch, perhaps the most exquisite part of the day (silky pasta, and cheese fresh off the goat).
The following day we visited nearby Pietrasanta ("holy stone"). This town has become an artists' colony (famous residents have included Fernando Botero), so workshops sit beside galleries, and contemporary sculpture appears unexpectedly in mediaeval squares. As in Forte, beauty here feels less like a luxury and more like a civic duty.
This contrast between the harsh beauty of the quarries and the refinement of the towns at their foot, is what makes this corner of Tuscany so alluring. Layers of history coexist with international glamour. Ancient materials become contemporary art. Wealthy Californian ex-hippies mingle with old Italian families and sheikhs. Fellini's ghost hovers somewhere between the beach clubs and the pine forests.
Book it: Rooms at La Serena start from 500 EUR based on two adults sharing a double room on a B&B basis. laserenahotel.it
