Forte dei Marmi is a sea town and comune in the province of Lucca, in northern Tuscany. The population of the town, amounting to some 7,700, nearly triples during the summer, because of the hundreds of tourist. It is the birthplace of Paola Ruffo di Calabria, Queen of the Belgians from 1993 to 2013.
In Italian Forte dei Marmi means “Fort of the marbles”. The town takes its name from the fortress that rises in the middle of the main square, built under Grand Duke Peter Leopold, who was to become Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1788. The fortress was built to defend the coast from outer attacks, but in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century it became the place where the marble quarried from the Apuan Alps (they are the same mountains of the famous marble of Carrara) was stocked before being sent to the pier for shipping.
Tourism in Forte dei Marmi started at the end of the 18th century when the rich families of the inland went to the coast to breath healthy air and to sandbath. At the beginning of the 19th century many wealthy families from Tuscany and the north of Italy started to choose this town for their summer holidays. Later on, also European families started to do so. Many important and famous people started to arrive in the area and the first villas were built in the pinewood near the sea. The first ones were Agnelli (today, the villa houses a 5* Hotel, Siemens, Giovanni Gentile, Thomas Mann, Renato Fucini, Italo Balbo, Curzio Malaparte, Enrico Pea, Aldous Huxley, Guglielmo Marconi, the writer Riccardo Bacchelli, the sculptor Henry Moore, Luchino Visconti and many Italian noble families. Artists meeting every day talking about arts and culture created a group called Quarto Platano. The Grand Hotel in Forte became an important place for the European high society and the hotel was chosen also from the Belgian royal family. Tourism increased after the Second World War, especially in the Sixties when more and more families love spending their summer and this lovely paradise. Many houses and hotels were built near the sea. In 1991 hotels were 101, most of them open only during the summer and some of them family-run businesses. Today the area is still a popular destination for businessmen, managers, politicians, show-men, movie and sport stars. Forte dei Marmi continue to offer to its guests the same peace and tranquility. It is still a town immersed in the pinewood with a beautiful sand beach. It is not very crowded and it is ideal for biking and shopping. The number of hotels decreased from 101 in 1991 to 58 hotels today. However, the number of people that have bought vacation houses here has increased.
