Looking for a villa near Forte dei Marmi?

If you are searching for a villa near Forte dei Marmi, one thing should be clear from the start: Roc Villa Bay is not in Forte dei Marmi. It is in Castiglioncello, a village in the province of Livorno, further south along the Tuscan coast. We are not going to pretend otherwise. What we can do is explain what Forte dei Marmi is, what Castiglioncello offers, and how to choose between them.

Forte dei Marmi in brief

Forte dei Marmi is a comune in the province of Lucca, in northern Tuscany, on the coast of the Ligurian Sea. It sits at the foot of the Apuan Alps, the mountains that have supplied marble for centuries, and its history is bound up with that trade. Today it is one of Italy's best-known beach resorts, with a compact centre, a long beach and a social season that attracts visitors from across Europe.

It is in Versilia, the coastal strip that also includes Viareggio and Pietrasanta. Versilia is polished, busy and oriented towards the sea as a social stage. If that is the holiday you want, Forte dei Marmi is hard to beat.

What people look for in Forte dei Marmi

Most people who search for a villa near Forte dei Marmi are looking for a combination of things: a prestigious address, a short distance from the beach clubs and the centre, space for a family or a group, and the privacy of a house rather than a hotel. Some also want to be within easy reach of the marble towns and the Versilian hinterland.

Those are legitimate priorities. They are simply not the priorities that Roc Villa Bay was built around.

The honest geography

Forte dei Marmi is in the province of Lucca. Castiglioncello is in the province of Livorno, on the Etruscan Riviera, further south. They are two different parts of the Tuscan coast, with different landscapes, different rhythms and different kinds of beach.

We deliberately do not publish a driving time or a distance between them. Those numbers depend on the route, the traffic and the season, and a misleading figure would be worse than no figure. If you are planning an itinerary that includes both, write to us and we will confirm the route and what to expect.

What Roc Villa Bay offers instead

Roc Villa Bay is a private seafront estate in Castiglioncello, with four bedrooms, three private units, more than 4,000 m² of Mediterranean garden and two private accesses to the sea: a sandy beach reached by a private path, and a rocky cove reached by stone steps. It is a house for families and small groups, for wedding stays around a celebration held elsewhere, and for film and photo productions that need the coast to be real.

The village around it is quieter than Versilia. There are small bays, pine woods and a late-nineteenth-century villa landscape rather than a promenade of beach clubs. If you want to walk down to the sea from the garden, this is the appeal. The villa in Castiglioncello page describes the house in detail.

How to decide

If your holiday is built around Forte dei Marmi itself — its beach clubs, its centre, its social life — then staying in or near Forte dei Marmi is the rational choice. If you want a private house with direct access to the sea and a quieter village base, and you are willing to be further south on the same coast, Roc Villa Bay is worth considering.

What we would not do is sell you Castiglioncello as if it were Versilia. They are different places, and the difference is the point. The Castiglioncello guide describes what the village is actually like.

Ask us about the route

If you are flying into Pisa or Florence, or driving down the coast, we can tell you how the journey works and what to expect. We will not invent a number to make the villa look closer than it is. Use the enquiry form and tell us where you are coming from.