FORTE DEI MARMI. EDOARDO NESI

STATE OF MIND

EDOARDO NESI TELLS US ABOUT HIS FORTE DEI MARMI: A PLACE, BUT ALSO A MOOD EDOARDO NESI CI RACCONTA LA SUA FORTE DEI MARMI: UN LUOGO, MA ANCHE UNO STATO D’ANIMO text Francesca Lombardi

FORTE DEI MARMI ITINERARY

The sky is perfect, so miraculously clear that it seems painted: not even a cloud swelling white on the horizon or stretched into streaks by the winds high up until it dissolves into total blue, and the sea is just rippled by a light breeze that comes from Corsica, its blue just slightly deeper than that of the sky, as if it were engaged in a vain attempt to mimic its perfection as it kisses a long strip the eye can see and seems to want to protect it from looming mountains so high and implausible that they seem to have just emerged from the earth due to some mysterious underworld movement, adorned with impenetrable woods, lacerated by deep veins of pure white marble. So begins one of Edoardo Nesi’s most captivating novels, (The with a language as effective as dense, textured brushstrokes, the book tells of a Versilia that belongs to each of us, whether we spent a summer here or ... all of our youth.An initial interlude in the textile business - linked to the DNA of his hometown, Prato - then the city’s Provincial Councillor for Culture and Deputy of the Republic, Edoardo Nesi has been a writer since adolescence. His into a desire to write short stories. He immediately demonstrated an ability to identify, in an elegant, captivating way, the torments of an in-between generation trapped between an excessively glittering past and a present that has now shown Storia della mia Gente (Story of my People) in which he describes the Prato textile industry and his family’s history. was Economia sentimentale (Sentimental Economy), published in state of mind, an appeal to each ones’ memories”: with these words by Edoardo, we begin a journey to ‘his’ Versilia. Il cielo è perfetto, così miracolosamente terso da sembrare dipinto: neanche una nuvola a perarsi nell’azzurro totale, e il mare è appena increspato da una brezza lieve che viene dalla Corsica, il suo azzurro appena più intenso di quello del cielo come se fosse impegnato nel vano tentativo di scimmiottarne la perfezione, e si bacia con una lunga striscia perdita d’occhio e pare volerlo proteggere dall’incombere di montagne così alte e implausibili da sembrare appena emerse dalla terra per via di qualche misterioso spostamento ctonio, ornate di boschi impenetrabili, squarciate da profonde venature di marmo candido. belli di Edoardo Nesi, .

A PORTRAIT OF

EDOARDO NESI. HE DEDICATED TO dense e materiche, la Versilia che appartiene a ciascuno di noi, sia che abbiaVERSILIA THE BOOK mo trascorso qui un’estate o…tutta la L’ESTATE INFINITA da imprenditore tessile - legata al Dna della sua città d’origine, Prato –, poi assessore alla cultura della Provincia della città e deputato della subito la capacità intercettare in maniera elegante, accattivan passato eccessivamente luccicante e un presente che ha mostrato ormai tutto il suo lato oscuro. Ha vinto il Premio Strega Storia della mia Gente in cui racconta la realtà tessile è Economia sentimentale un appello alla memoria di ciascuno di noi”: con queste paro

ph. Dario Garofalo

FORTE DEI MARMI ITINERARY

Edoardo Nesi’s favourite places: off the most glamorous itineraries, the Tuscan writer has told us about an ancient, elegant and silent Versilia. Where there is no nostalgia for the past, but fragments of authenticity Lorenzo Restaurant The Viani family’s restaurant, downtown Forte dei Marmi. Sublime and yet very simple cuisine. Every But there is much more to it. Orlando Experiences and food I posti preferiti di Edoardo Nesi: fuo glamour, lo scrittore toscano ci ha raccontato una nostalgia del passato, ma frammenti di autenticità Ristorante Lorenzo Il ristorante della famiglia Viani, in pieno centro del Forte dei Marmi. Cucina sublime eppure anche semplicissima. Tutte le mattine, da sempre, alla ricerca del pesce migliore. Ma c’è molto di Orlando

You have to go looking for Orlando, hidden as it is in Roma Imperiale’s pinewood. As a kid, I would go schiacciata bread with tiny arselle clams, soft fruit cakes, raspberries with custard. I used to go even by night, one thousand years ago, after the Capannina. Piazza dei Cavallini The kingdom of little boys and girls. There is no other place on earth where an entire square, and a sort of circuit, is devoted to children’s entertainment. I’ve spent many an afternoon helping my kids in and out of the little Formula One-style where everybody won and, for some years now I was told, jumping with elastic bands: kids are shot into the air like astronauts, with the blue sky in the background. Downtown Forte dei Marmi

It was so lovely forty years ago, with the small crafts shops, the artisans, the clicking of clogs, the sweet smell of focaccine at Valè’s, where we gathered at sunset. Everything is different now. There is only fort, the well and the Apuan mountains as the backdrop. With a bit of imagination and a little heart-aching you can still breathe the old-style Forte. Da Orlando invece bisogna andarci apposta, incastonato com’è nella pineta di Roma Imperiale. Da arselle, le torte coi frutti di bosco, i lamponi con la crema. Anche di notte, ci andavo, mille anni fa, dopo la Capannina. La piazza dei Cavallini Il regno dei bambini e delle bambine. giochi. Ci ho passato dei pomeriggi a far salire e scendere i miei dalle macchinine fatte a mo’ di Formula Uno e dai calessini e dai dorsi dei pony. E poi la pesca a punti, dove si vince sempre, e da qualche anno, mi dicono, la novità del salto con gli elastici: bambini sparati in aria come astronauti, sullo sfondo del cielo blu Il centro di Forte dei Marmi

… ma com’era quarant’anni fa, con le botteghe, delle focaccine di Valè, dove ci si ritrovava al tramonto. Oggi è tutto diverso. Solo un angolo è ri mento si può ancora provare a respirare la vecchia Forte.

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FORTE DEI MARMI ITINERARY

5 places not to be missed

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THE STREETS OF ROMA IMPERIALE haired children, Vespa scooters, pine trees giving shade to the streets. Everything is unchanged and maybe perfect, like in the endless summers

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VITTORIA APUANA here as a child. It has always been a special place to me. Now and then I jump on my Vespa and go see my friend Fabio Genovesi, writer and shaman, a master of cycle racing, a hot pepper grower and expert, the soul of Versilia”

THE BEACH a long beach so elegant. Everything happens on the beach, even falling in love” THE PIER and sunset, when the beach is empty. It reminds me of when I was a kid, and I would swim and hang out with my friends after dancing at the Capannina”

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THE VERSILIANA I enjoyed going through it by night, when I was young, on a Jeep that could barely make it through the paths. It was probably prohibited, I don’t know. It was nice, though”