Italian beaches are getting more expensive

Everything is getting more expensive, so are the beaches. A beach chair with umbrella on the Italian coast will cost an average of 10% more this year than in 2021. 'Anger on the beach due to the new price increases' was therefore titled La Repubblica last week. But a comparative study by consumer organization Altroconsumo also shows that there are major differences per region.

Broadly speaking, you pay more in the north of the country than in the south, but there are exceptions. It is therefore certainly worth informing yourself before you settle down on any Italian beach.

According to the owners, the increases are inevitable due to inflation, high energy costs and the absence of the Russians. But it is also possible that they fear losing the goose that lays the golden eggs and therefore want to take the money quickly.

Leased coast

Since time immemorial, the Italian state has leased most of its coastline to private individuals, who in return rake in and fill their patch of sandy soil with hundreds of neatly arranged umbrellas. The rent established in the distant past is usually ridiculously low, the earnings are good and the concessions are automatically renewed so that the same families always benefit.

But their position has been threatened for years by the so-called 'directive' Bolkestein† This is a measure designed by the then Dutch European Commissioner and adopted by the European Parliament in 2006 for free competition in the services sector. This also includes the balneari, the beach operators. Their concessions should no longer be automatically renewed, but reissued every few years and awarded to whoever makes the best offer.

The directive was adopted by Italy in 2010, but the bathing and other professions such as market traders and taxi drivers have so far successfully resisted its introduction in their industry. After all, they also form a hefty electoral pressure group and Italian politicians are all too often willing to defend their interests against free competition. (By the way, that's also one of the reasons why the economy in this country.)

illegal

For years, the concessions were simply extended until in 2016 the European Court of Justice declared the continuation illegal. Two years later, the then Minister of Tourism, Gian Marco Centinaio of the Lega, promised that the directive would also be implemented in Italy, but only from 2033! This resulted in a reprimand from the European Commission in 2020, followed at the end of last year by a judgment by the Italian Council of State, which annulled the government decision of 2018 because it violated Italian law.

The result was a fierce political debate, which came in second place in the media after the war in Ukraine and in which even the survival of the Draghi government seemed threatened. After weeks of haggling, a compromise has now been reached, whereby the concessions will come on the market in 2 and the losers will be compensated. For those who are still getting rich while sleeping, that is a good reason to invest thoroughly now or to grab while you still can. In both cases it costs money and the consumer notices that.

Expensive Apulia

After this somewhat lengthy introduction, now the main data from Altroconsumo's report. One of the most expensive beaches is that of Alassio in Liguria. There you can pay 380 euros for a sun lounger with umbrella in the first week of August and if you come with the two of you, you will lose 75 euros for a day. You can get a lot cheaper in the small southern regions of Molise and Basilicata. In Termoli on the Adriatic coast you pay 100 euros and Policoro on the Tyrrhenian Sea 98.

That the southern tip of Apulia has become expensive, you see in the popular Gallipoli, where a week's chair plus umbrella costs 280 euros and in Calabria you can also be expensive if you are not careful. The Adriatic coast is generally less expensive, with top picks such as Rimini (€131), Lignano Sabbiadoro (€142) and Cattolica (€166). And the saying that the islands would be cheaper certainly does not apply to top tourist locations such as Taormina in Sicily and the Sardinian San Teodoro.

With all this, you have to keep in mind that these figures are certainly not universally valid. They cover the first week of August when, after two years of covid restrictions, the beaches promise to be packed and operators can ask what the hell they care about.

It will also be possible to find more attractively priced locations in the expensive places, although in that respect the operators show mutual solidarity. Then the location of your seat and the day you use it also make a difference: Altroconsumo cites the example of the Veneto region, where in many places the front row, with a sea view, costs 40 euros on Saturdays, and the third row on Monday 13 euros.

Free beaches

Finally, there is the alternative of the free beaches. They do exist in Italy, although you often have to walk for them and bring your own parasol. South of Ostia, the seaside resort of Rome, is a series of beaches, the Cancelli, where you only spend money on the parking attendant and the owners earn money with beach restaurants where you can eat and drink not cheap but good.

The beach of the fashionable Capalbio on the Tuscan coast, once the domain of the snobbish left from Rome, is in the list of Altroconsumo at 280 euros, but also has free beaches. You can find them in most seaside resorts – the municipalities are legally obliged to keep a few open – but they are often overcrowded, not very carefully cleaned and sometimes next to the outflow of indefinable colored streams.