The sea of the Cinquale and Forte dei Marmi, from Montignoso

Getting there

At the Cinquale there is no motorhome area: the motorhome stays in the campsites of the Partaccia, at Marina di Massa, and you go to the Cinquale and Forte dei Marmi by bicycle along the sea or by bus. The town is completely flat, and the centre is closed to cars by pedestrian areas, limited traffic zones and bollards.

• By bicycle or on foot: from the campsites of the Partaccia to the Cinquale it is seven flat kilometres along the sea. From the Cinquale you follow the seafront south, cross the Versilia near the mouth and enter Vittoria Apuana, the northern quarter of Forte dei Marmi; from there the seafront avenue has the cycle and footpath as far as the pier and beyond. On foot it is a good three quarters of an hour's walk, always with the sea on your right. The Comune of Forte dei Marmi, a FIAB Cycle-Friendly Town since 2020, has other cycle paths on the busier roads: via XX Settembre, via Versilia, via Mascagni and via Ponchielli
• By bus, by day: Autolinee Toscane's E1 line, from Lucca to Marina di Massa by way of Viareggio, passes through Marina di Massa and stops at the Cinquale, at Cinquale Lungomare, at Vittoria Apuana and on viale Italico in Forte dei Marmi. The timetables are on the Autolinee Toscane website, which at the end of October 2026 publishes only the winter one
• By bus, in the evening: the Lungomare by Night, in summer 2026 from Wednesday to Sunday in July and August, and at the weekends from 19 to 21 and from 26 to 28 June and from 4 to 6 September, from 19:00 to 5:00, links Marina di Carrara to Forte dei Marmi by way of the Cinquale, and from Forte carries on as far as Torre del Lago. The ticket, in 2026, cost 5.50 euros for the whole night, on board only, in cash or by contactless card. In 2026 the last bus from Forte dei Marmi towards the Cinquale left at 4:35
• With the motorhome in Forte dei Marmi: the Comune has no motorhome area, and on the beaches the rules ban camping and bringing vehicles. The centre is pedestrian all year in piazza Garibaldi, via Stagio Stagi, via Roma, via Montauti, via Carducci, via IV Novembre and a large part of via Mazzini; around it is the limited traffic zone, which in summer, from 1 June to the third Sunday of September, grows larger and applies from 17:00 to 6:00 on weekdays and all day on Sundays and public holidays. Since 21 May 2026 the entrances to the centre have been closed by retractable bollards. In Roma Imperiale, the quarter of villas south of the centre, the summer limited traffic zone applies from 21:00 to 6:00, from the last Sunday in June to the second Sunday in September
• The pay car parks of Forte dei Marmi are run by the Comune's Azienda Multiservizi: in the central zones, according to its website, you pay from 7:00 to 3:00, from 1.50 to 2 euros an hour, 10 euros a day; in the free beach zone, from 1 June to 30 September, from 8:00 to 20:00, 1.50 euros an hour and 8 euros a day. None of these zones is marked for motorhomes

Practical information

The day does not need booking: at most you book a beach umbrella in August, and the ticket for the Villa Bertelli concerts.

Contacts

Where it is

Cinquale e Forte dei Marmi · Toscana

You set off from

Notes

• The beach of the Cinquale belongs to Montignoso, between Poveromo, a hamlet of Massa, to the north and the mouth of the Versilia to the south. On the Lungomare di Levante, in viale IV Novembre, next to the Comune's beach establishments, is the Green Beach, a free beach open to everyone and designed for people with reduced mobility: a walkway to the sea, two job chairs, beach wheelchairs for getting into the water, tents with platforms, reserved parking spaces and, in summer, an information point; the lifeguard service, writes the Tuscan tourist board, runs from 10:00 to 18:00. Among the beach establishments the Comune lists Bagno Simone (338 4239994) and Skikki Beach (366 2710034)
• What a beach umbrella costs at the Cinquale: the price list of the Comune di Montignoso's beach establishments, approved by the Giunta, the town council, in 2019 and still online in 2026, gives for non-residents 12.30 euros plus VAT per day in July and August for an umbrella with two deckchairs, 10.70 euros plus VAT in June and September, and 4.10 euros plus VAT for an extra sunlounger. The other establishments set their own prices, and display them at the entrance, as the Comune's beach order requires. In Forte dei Marmi nobody publishes a shared price list of the beach establishments: there umbrellas, tents and cabins are mostly taken for the season
• The beach rules at the Cinquale, from the Comune di Montignoso's beach order no. 131 of 14 July 2017: the season runs from 1 June to 20 September and the beach establishments stay open at least from 8:00 to 20:00. All year it is forbidden to camp, to drive vehicles onto the sand, to light fires and to leave umbrellas and deckchairs on the free beach after sunset; ball games and beach tennis are played in the areas set up by the beach establishments, not among the towels. The five metre strip from the water's edge is kept clear for people walking, and the beach establishments must let through anyone going to the free beach or to the sea
• The mouth of the Versilia: the river channel runs between the breakwaters among the boats of the little harbour, along via Grillotti, and it is the boundary between Montignoso and Forte dei Marmi. In the mouth and in front of it, in the stretch marked by the Regione, bathing is banned all year for health reasons, as at the mouths of the Frigido and the Brugiano at Massa. You swim further north, in front of the beach of the Cinquale, or further south, at Vittoria Apuana
• Dogs: at the Cinquale, from the free beach a dog may go into the water only before 8:30 and after 19:30, and in the beach establishments the operator decides; in Forte dei Marmi, at the water's edge, before 8:00 and after 20:00, and in the beach establishments that accept them, on a lead and with a muzzle; the list is kept by the tourist office in the Fortino. Never in the water, in Forte, while the lifeguards are on duty. The Comune does not point out a beach reserved for dogs at the Cinquale. In Forte dei Marmi the dog exercise areas are in via Ferrucci, via Civitali and via XX Settembre, open in summer from 8:00 to 20:00
• Car parks at the Cinquale: from 1 April to 30 October every year, according to resolution no. 109 of 2021 of the Giunta of Montignoso, parking is paid at the meter from 8:00 to 4:00 in the car park behind via del Freo, on both sides of viale IV Novembre, in via Giulio Cesare, in via della Libertà and in via Kennedy. Free are viale Gramsci, via Grillotti along the little harbour, via Matteotti and via Manzoni, about four hundred car spaces. The resolution does not give the rates; the meters take credit and debit cards
• The pier is in the middle of the seafront of Forte dei Marmi, in piazza Vittorio Cardini. The first landing place for marble dates from the sixteenth century, when the Medici had the quarries of the Versilia opened and the road built down to the sea; the goods arrived at the beach on ox carts and were loaded onto navicelli, the local cargo boats, with barges. The pier, built between 1876 and 1877, is about three hundred metres long; you can walk to the very end, the fishermen of their association fish from it, and next to it is the place for surfers: the Pontile spot is one of the most popular in Italy. Ferragosto opens here with the dawn concert, and the feast of Sant'Ermete closes with the fireworks
• The Fortino, in piazza Garibaldi, is today an exhibition venue and houses the tourist information office. In the square there is an eighteenth century well and the fountain with the coat of arms of Pietrasanta, the municipality of which Forte dei Marmi was a hamlet until 1914
• The shopping streets are the ones closed to cars around the Fortino: via Carducci, via Montauti, via Roma, via Stagio Stagi, via IV Novembre, and via Mazzini, with the boutiques and the cafés; at the Caffè Quarto Platano, on the Fortino square, Carrà, Soffici, Viani and the other artists who spent the summer here used to meet in the 1920s and 1930s
• The markets, according to the Comune: the Wednesday market in piazza Marconi, the ring of asphalt among the pines in the centre, all year from 8:00 to 13:30, with fashion, cashmere, shoes and linen, and on the same day the food market in piazza Donatori di Organi; on Sundays in piazza Marconi again from Easter to the end of October; on Fridays at Vittoria Apuana, in via Mazzini, from the first Friday in June to the last in September, the closest to the Cinquale. On Sunday mornings there is also the farmers' market, from 8:30 to 13:00, in piazza Donatori di Organi or in via Assisi at Vittoria Apuana depending on the week
• Vittoria Apuana, the first quarter of Forte dei Marmi after the Versilia, is the one you pass through. Villa Bertelli, in via Mazzini, was born as the premises of an explosives factory for the quarries, with its own wooden pier at the end of what is now via Crispi, demolished in the early 1930s; from 1926 it was a hotel, and today it is the Comune's cultural centre, with the Quarto Platano modern art museum, opened in 2024, and in summer the big concerts in the park. In summer 2026 Il Volo, Nek, Fiorella Mannoia and Luca Carboni played here, and the ticket office in July and August is open from 17:00 to 22:00. On concert evenings via Mazzini is closed, and the car parks around are full. Also at Vittoria Apuana, towards the boundary, are the Dune, the dunes, the last stretch of coast left as it was before the beach establishments, looked after by the Comune with the WWF, and the museum of the sculptor Ugo Guidi in his house
• Roma Imperiale, south of the centre, is the quarter of villas in the pine woods, with houses designed by Michelucci, Gio Ponti and Pagano, and the Capannina di Franceschi, the club opened in 1929. You go round it by bicycle, at the times when the limited traffic zone does not close the streets
• With children: in the beach establishments you can hire pattini, the lifeguards' rowing boats, pedal boats, canoes and bicycles, and many have a beach volleyball court; in Forte dei Marmi there are surf and SUP schools for all ages, and the beach establishments can arrange swimming and beginners' surfing lessons. At the beginning of July, at the pier, the lifeguards of Forte compete in their pattini in Save a Life, and at the beginning of August in the Palio dei Bagni, the regatta started in 1952 that finishes at the pier. In the evening, when the lifeguards have gone, swimming is unsupervised: for young people it is the time for a walk on the pier and an ice cream in the centre
• Summer evenings: in August Forte dei Marmi has the feast of its patron saint Sant'Ermete, with the Focata, the great bonfire in front of the Fortino, on the 27th and the fireworks from the pier on the 28th, and the dawn concert on the pier on the 15th; at Marina di Pietrasanta, further along the seafront, there is the Versiliana festival in the park. The dates are on the Montignoso page

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