Tourists Do Amalfi. Locals Do This.  

We took four kids to the Tuscan coast for a long weekend. It surprised us in every way. 

Italy has a Republic Day holiday on June 2nd, which, combined with a well-timed school skip on Monday, turned into a four-night weekend. We had loosely floated flying down to Sicily or somewhere in southern Italy, but in the end, we decided to stay close. An hour from Pistoia, on the Tuscan coast, sits Forte dei Marmi, and all the locals we’d asked said it was worth it. 

So we planned a trip. 

The Getting There Part (Which Was Not Simple) 

The plan was: train to Viareggio, then a 20 minute taxi to the Airbnb. Easy. We had the double stroller, the scooters, one big suitcase, a couple small bags. We were going to be efficient. 

An hour before departure, the train was canceled. There was a strike, and the next one was likely to be canceled too. 

We quickly messaged the car rental guy we’ve gotten to know here. Finding a third-row vehicle in Italy is not easy. Most people drive small cars, and when you have more than three kids, that becomes a real issue. He came through, though. Within the hour, he had a vehicle sent from Florence to his office in Pistoia. We picked it up, loaded everyone in, and were almost on schedule. It cost quite a a bit more than a train ride. But we were grateful to have an option at all, because the holiday weekend taxi quotes to Forte dei Marmi were absurd. 

The Airbnb: Ideal Location, Not Cheap 

I found a four-bedroom about a block from the beach and maybe five blocks from the center of town. Not beachfront, but close. It was not cheap to be that close. With little kids, convenience is essentially everything, so we paid it. 

The host was great. When I asked about getting groceries delivered (since we’d originally planned to take the train and couldn’t easily stop), she just went and got them herself and stocked us with the basics. She also arranged bikes, which I’ll get to. 

The Airbnb itself, for the price, was lacking in the details. Uncomfortable beds. Bad pillows. Broken things throughout. An understocked kitchen. And the yard, which I had imagined would be this wonderful outdoor space for the kids to run around in, turned out to be a mosquito situation unlike anything I’ve experienced. My one and two year old were covered in bites within five minutes of arriving. I stopped going outside in the yard entirely. We kept the doors closed as much as possible and we still got many bites inside the house. 

The location alone made it worth it.  

The Delightful Surprise: The Bikes 

When the host asked if we wanted bikes, I hesitated. We have a one, two, four, and five year old. I had no idea how we’d distribute four children across three bikes while also getting anywhere useful. We said maybe, and somehow that translated to: bikes are already at the Airbnb with baby seats installed. 

So Chris had one baby on the front, one small child on the back. I had one baby on the front. Sawyer, our five year old, rode his own bike. We had a basket on Chris’s for bags. It was a full circus clown situation. 

It was also one of the best parts of the whole trip. 

Forte dei Marmi has a serious bike culture and a great bike lane. We were only a block away from it, and while there was some road biking involved, it all worked. The kids loved it. Sawyer was beaming. The babies thought it was the greatest thing that had ever happened to them. The weather was perfect, high seventies, and we just biked around and had the best time. 

Beach Clubs: What to Know 

If you’ve never been to a beach on the Tuscan coast (or most of Europe), the setup takes some getting used to. The beach is lined with clubs, each one its own territory of umbrellas, lounge chairs, and beds. You rent a spot for the day. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this before we went. It seemed like it might feel too structured, or like it would detract from just being at the beach. 

It’s actually great. You show up with your bathing suit. The chairs and umbrella are already there. You’re not hauling chairs and bags and a tent down the sand. For a family with four small kids, the reduction in logistics is meaningful. Most of the beach clubs we went to felt family-owned and welcoming, which added something too. 

Picking the right one is the challenge. There are hundreds of them, no easy way to tell from the internet which are worth going to, which are family-friendly, and which just look good in photos. 

Day one, we went to Bagno Pietro. No pool, but we were there for the beach, so that was fine. The service was warm and attentive, the people were lovely, and they had a small kids area with a little playground, soccer field, and even a little library section. They handed us a bag of sand toys because we hadn’t brought any. It was exactly what we needed. 

Day two, the Airbnb host had arranged a beach club for us through her travel concierge business. She kept the name vague when I asked, which felt a little off, but she sent a video and it looked nice. There was a beautiful pool in the video. 

We arrived to find the pool had no water in it. Just dirt. The setup was bare bones, no kids area, no toys, the staff was underwhelming. We left and went back to Bagno Pietro. They were full, but because we’d spent a whole day with them the day before, they called a family they knew wasn’t coming and gave us their spot. We got our sand toys back and had another great day. Shout out to the owner Tommaso  for taking car of our family.

Day three, we went to La Fenice, which had a pool I had confirmed was actually operational. It was beautiful, with a shallow section for small kids, a real kids play area, good service, and a lovely atmosphere. One thing that this pool required was bathing caps, which is pretty common in Italy. All four boys had to wear them. The little ones had absolutely no idea what was happening to their heads and found it hilarious, which honestly made it one of the more entertaining twenty minutes of the trip. The boys loved having the pool as an option after that, though they still spent most of their time at the water’s edge in the sand. 

Dinner: The Constant Challenge 

We struggled with dinner every night, and I think this is just the reality of beach days with small kids. We’d be at the beach all day, bring the babies back for naps, sometimes leave one of the older boys at the beach with one of us, get back around 4:30 once everyone was up, and then by the time dinner actually started in Italy (around seven), we had four sandy, hungry, tired kids who had fully used up whatever patience they’d arrived with that morning. 

One night we biked to a sandwich place. One night we went home and had cereal and eggs. The first night we made it out to a little piazza and had a real meal, and that was lovely. The last night Chris had work calls, so we put everyone to bed early and called it. 

Forte dei Marmi itself is fancy. Designer stores, Ferraris everywhere, people dressed up for dinner, the full thing. We experienced approximately none of that. We were beach people on this trip, and the town was mostly just a backdrop. 

The Part Worth Saying Out Loud 

We woke up Tuesday, packed up the house, and headed back to Pistoia. Walking back in, it felt like home. That’s still a little surprising every time it happens. 

The trip was good. Really good, actually, with the usual caveats. The train cancellation was stressful for about 45 minutes. The Airbnb had mosquitoes and had some minor discomforts (for the price!). The concierge beach club was a pool full of dirt. These things happened and then we moved on and had a great time anyway, which I think is mostly the point. 

Northern Italy beaches are underrated, and I don’t think most tourists even put them on the list. We default to dreaming about Sicily or the Amalfi Coast, and the Tuscan coast doesn’t make the shortlist. It should. 

The first two days were calm and perfect. The last day had red flag conditions, so it was wavy and a little wild, and the kids thought that was incredible. What I appreciated most, honestly, was the lifeguards. Having that extra set of eyes watching four small kids near the water takes something off your shoulders that you don’t fully realize is there until it’s gone. Both the beach and the pool had lifeguards everywhere, which as a mom meant I could actually exhale. 

And the views go both ways. You look out and there’s the Mediterranean. You turn around and there are mountains behind you. It’s a beautiful setting, and it doesn’t feel like a tourist production. It’s somewhere locals actually go – it had a real level of authenticity.  

Would we go back? Yes. We’d book a different Airbnb, skip the concierge recommendation entirely, plan for sandwiches most nights, and say yes to the bikes immediately. 

Also, we’d bring mosquito repellent. A lot of it.