The Villas of Imperial Rome

Hop on your bike and, on a calm summer day, take on this short route to discover the evocative villas of Imperial Rome.

Follow the cycle path that starts from the Pontile and reach first Via XX Settembre, and immediately after the Roma Imperiale district. The area takes its name from the Società Cooperativa Anonima Roma Imperiale, which purchased the land in the area in the 1920s, to then resell it in lots to wealthy holidaymakers. Here stand beautiful homes surrounded by greenery and a stone's throw from the sea, for whose constructions the architects of the time used precious materials, including local ones. The initial nucleus of villas was built for the colony of German tourists who, following the studies of the Florentine doctor Dr. Vanzetti, a convinced pioneer of heliotherapy treatments, frequented Forte dei Marmi for the healthiness of the sea and beaches.

Walk along Via XX Settembre: near the Necchi Balloni Municipal Stadium, take Via Corsica, where you can admire the Mediterranean rationalism of Villa Antonietta, with its continuous glass windows, perfect for a villa by the sea. From Via Corsica continue along Via Raffaelli and reach Villa Mann–Borghese (Via Thomas Mann), built in 1957 by Leonardo Ricci, a student of the architect Giovanni Michelucci, for Thomas Mann's daughter. The building clearly recalls the shape of an ocean liner which, in the words of the owner, is ready to 'set sail for the mountains'. From Via Raffaelli, move freely through the surrounding streets, quiet and shaded: savour the majesty of the buildings, the beauty of the gardens, the tranquility of the atmosphere.

Reach via Leonardo da Vinci with its majestic Villa Santa Maria.
For many it is the most beautiful residence in all of Versilia. Or at least the most evocative. Because it is the last example of a Leopoldine farm surviving on the coast from the time of the Grand Duke's Reclamation. And because its transformation into a holiday villa has made it even more evocative.
It is located in the noble heart of Forte dei Marmi, in Villa Roma Imperiale, where the old coastal pine forest once gave way to cereal fields.
It used to be the Apuana estate, which had Villa Siemens as its main villa on the seafront. Today a small marble cartouche tells you that it is called Villa Santa Maria. In reality, for at least 30 years it has been Villa Moratti, because it is the seaside retreat of Massimo Moratti, his wife Milly, his sister Bedy and the children of the former Inter boss.
A residence, we were saying, beautiful, suggestive. In these years it has hosted politicians and entrepreneurs, sportsmen and men of culture: actors, writers, TV authors, satirists. A circle of characters, especially from Northern Italy, who have undoubtedly ennobled Forte dei Marmi.

The parallel Via Nizza, finally, leads to Villa Costanza, home to Admiral Morin in 1899 and sold to the Agnelli family in the 1920s. A careful philological restoration has transformed this building into the famous Augustus hotel, capable of combining high-level services with a particular atmosphere of style.

The Roma Imperiale neighborhood is dotted with a photographic trail that portrays the places where the painter Carlo Carrà captured his landscape visions on canvas.

End the tour by returning to the seafront to admire the aforementioned Villa Siemens.