Forte Dei Marmi, the sands of time

In the basking Mediterranean summer month of August, much of Europe heads for the coast. This has led to a thriving beach resort culture with some of the best and most popular beaches being spread on the Versilian coast north of Livorno. Here four-and-a-half kilometres of deep, soft, golden sands press against fresh pinewoods that carpet a flat, narrow plain ridged by the Apuan Alps.

For at least the last century when seaside holidays became ubiquitous, the town of Forte Dei Marmi has been a veritable cufflink or pearl button studded on the sands of the Tuscan Riviera. For starters, it's very high-end, but in a gracious, laid-back fashion. This is not the kind of resort where college-age kids hang out of open-topped cars with loud music blaring, quaffing spirits. In fact, the only spirits you are likely to encounter are the ghosts of a bygone era, so refined is the atmosphere.

Forte Dei Marmi feels like a town without internet access - somehow, time seems disconnected as if the intrusions of any form of disruptive technology have been politely and gently surrendered on entering a gated community. I couldn't shake the not unwelcome time-warp sensation when we arrived at the five-star Hotel Byron on the seaside strip. Although the hotel is a contemporary update of a patrician villa and lacks for nothing in terms of facilities or comforts, there is resolutely nothing cutting edge about it. Its décor is dusted in the softest shades of mint and coral. In fact, the hotel's ambience is so muted that you feel you should only whisper, which is pretty much the way their well-off clientele want it.

Perfectly arrayed in pastel shades

I had the sense that I had walked onto a television set for some fabulous 1980s series a la Dallas or Dynasty - or a very old Ralph Lauren catalogue. Everything in the public spaces was perfectly arrayed in pastel shades; even the breakfast buffet looked like it had been styled as a photograph.

That sense of 'the town that time forgot' was even clearer when we forsook the Byron's Michelin-starred poolside La Magnolia restaurant and drove off on our first evening to find somewhere more artisanal to eat - and felt like we were the only car in town! Even the most elegant of middle-aged women, the kind who wear linen and carry small dogs, were on bicycles with their pooches in a big basket on the front of the bike. The streets were immaculate, the gardens manicured, even the street lighting seemed flattering. We had stumbled into an Italian version of The Stepford Wives!

Against this backdrop of perfect order and neatness, the beach access system should come as no surprise. Segregated by paid entry, strips of beach are presented in perfectly aligned rows of umbrellas and loungers arrayed with the meticulousness of well-drilled Napoleonic campaign army tents. Elba, the island where the emperor was garrisoned before his escape, is not too far offshore.

If your idea of a perfect holiday is sheer relaxation, sitting on a terrace reading or looking at the super yachts, cycling in slow motion down pretty streets looking at designer boutiques or visiting the park of an evening for an open-air concert or ballet, then Forte Dei Marmi is just for you and the Hotel Bryon your oasis. If not, send your parents!

Marcus Brewster was a guest of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, an unrivalled portfolio of some of the world's finest small independent hotels. Comprising over 520 hotels in more than 80 countries, the diversity of the individual hotels, and the experiences that they offer, is exceptional. From cutting-edge design hotels to palatial 17th century mansions, city centre sanctuaries to remote private islands, historic country houses to idyllic resorts, Small Luxury Hotels of the World offers only the very best. www.slh.com