Interview by Titti Chiarello - Photography Annalisa Ceccotti

Her love for Forte dei Marmi has been a lifelong affair. Maria Sole Ambrosi de Vinelli, born in the Veneto region to a half-Tuscan, half-Ligurian mother and a Milanese father, landed in Forte for the first time when she was more or less sixty days old. Why so young in Forte? I was born in February and at Easter my mother and father brought me here in swaddling. It had always been a tradition in my family: my mother, and before her my grandmother, spent all their holidays here. So it was Easter in Versilia, no matter what. Where do you live? In Verona, my whole life. I met my husband Paolo there; my two daughters, Allegra and Iacobella, were born there. It’s a city I love, and I’m bound up with it in many ways, but my true roots – and my heart – are in Forte dei Marmi. Why such strong ties to Forte? I could tell you a million things, and they’d all be true. For example, it’s a beautiful place where I have spent very happy moments with my family. But the truth is that for me, Forte is home, in the most intimate, fondest sense of the word. There are so many small details, and then the scents, the atmospheres, the colors . . . that all remind me of the past, but a past that returns and lives again through my daughters, who as they grow up do the same things I used to do many years ago. The same magnificent freedom, the safe biking, staying on the beach until sunset, enjoying the pleasures of long walks down shady streets. In August, Villa Bertelli is presenting your first book, Le chicche della Sole, a collection of family recipes. Is there one linked to Forte? Oh yes, of course! A whole chapter is devoted to Forte dei Marmi: recipes for a picnic on the beach, simple but special, with a flavor of times past about them – like the farro salad with seafood or the zucchini-and-leek omelet. In the section on children’s snacks I included the torta della nonna, a classic cake in Forte, because in ours, the pine nuts were those we gathered in our garden. A favorite place? It might seem strange, but it’s the view of the Apuans. I always wave goodbye to the mountains from the highway as I head back to Verona. I whisper a “see you soon” from the heart, and it seems they answer me.