Sea, sand and sky-high fees: Italians tussle over their right to lie on the beach | Italy

“Most Italians don’t know they have the right to go to the beach for free,” says Manuela Salvi, planting her umbrella in the sand of a private beach club in Gaeta, a small seaside town in central Italy. “They are used to paying to go to the seaside. And if we don’t make our voices heard, the institutions will think we’re fine with it.”

Behind her, another 30 people are preparing to do the same. They are all members of Mare Libero (Free Sea), the association that since 2019 has swarmed beaches with protesters in an effort to reclaim the space. They want to make Italy’s beaches free to access or at least allocated to beach operators through a transparent bidding process.

The European Commission has long criticised Italy’s beach concession renewal system in which state-owned licences are automatically handed down through families of beach operators who use them to run members-only beach clubs or charge for sun loungers and umbrellas. This system of “keeping it in the family” is illegal, according to EU law, which states longstanding beach concessionaires should compete with new operators.

In April, the country’s top court ruled Italy’s automatic renewal of beach concessions invalid and a public tendering process for beach concessions, which cover almost half of the country’s estimated 4,900 miles (7,900km) of coastline, will now happen next year. Those running the concessions are so incensed they plan to strike this week.

For now though, Italy’s coastline remains lined with long stretches of private beaches crowded with people tanning on loungers, playing sports and eating ice-cream.

“I have spent almost every summer of my life in the same beach club and my mother has done the same for 25 years,” says Mare Libero’s Margherita Welyam.

Welyam’s biggest role as a protester is cultural. “In regions where beaches are more privatised, people believe this is the only way they can experience the beach, and it’s an expensive one,” she says. “My mother used to pay about €3,000 to rent the same cabin, lounger and umbrella for three months.”

Along the Italian coastline, there are more than 12,000 beach resorts, with daily prices for two loungers and an umbrella averaging €30-35 (£25-30) and reaching up to €700 in the more exclusive places.

“Sea access is problematic in southern Italy too,” says Klarissa Pica, another activist. In Naples, data from Mare Libero shows that only 5% of the beaches are free from private ownership, concessions or pollution. The few free beaches, such as Posillipo in Naples, require booking and have limited access. Other beaches that are free to use, such as Bagnoli in Naples and San Giovanni a Teduccio in Naples, are often polluted and theoretically off-limits for swimming but are still used due to a lack of alternatives.

Riccardo Di Luna, head of the association of concessionaires of Serapo, one of the biggest beaches in Gaeta, says that as long as the government doesn’t stop him and fellow owners from running their businesses, they will continue to open their beach clubs every morning. “But I’m worried about the future,” he says. “I still believe our job is important, as we provide lifeguarding, beach cleaning and other services.”

On Friday, beach concessionaires will strike, opening up at 9.30am instead of 7.30am, to demand government action for legislative clarity. In a press release, the Italian Beach Concessionaires’ Union said: “It should be clear to everyone that there is a real and concrete risk of losing jobs and businesses, and that help from the government is needed now or it will be useless.” If no response is received, the strike will be repeated on August 19 and August 29, with possibly more drastic closures.

When Mare Libero activists staged their own protest and planted their beach umbrellas, Di Luna alerted the local coastguard. Ultimately, there were no consequences for the protesters.

In June, however, 12 activists, including the secretary of the libertarian party Italian Radicals, Matteo Hallissey, were charged with participating in an unauthorised protest after one of their actions at Papeete Beach, a renowned beach club on the Adriatic coast. Despite this, activists continue to target regular and luxury beach clubs, such as Twiga, the upmarket establishment where Daniela Santanché, Italy’s tourism minister, was once a shareholder.

In Italy, the connections between beach concessions and politics run deep. Mare Libero’s activists from Liguria, a northern region where nearly 70% of the beaches are private and some towns have reached 100% privatisation, are particularly aware of this. “This beach has become a symbol of our resistance against the privatisation of our few remaining free beaches,” says Stefano Salvetti, the local coordinator, referring to Punta dell’Olmo, a small public beach a few kilometres from Genoa that is under threat of being privatised.

“These cultural and political barriers must be dismantled through transparent tenders with fair fees,” says Salvetti. According to the latest report from Italy’s court of auditors, between 2016 and 2020, the state collected an average of €101.7m a year which went to the general coffers, while each beach-based business generated an average revenue of about €260,000.

“Municipalities could use these funds to provide lifeguards and toilets on public beaches. Just a few kilometres away in France, this is already the norm. It can be here too,” he says.