Environmental group names Italy’s top beaches

Wed. May 19 13:19 p.m. zoomata

Tourists looking for pristine beaches in Italy would be wise to head south this year.
Italian environmental group Legambiente’s beach guide, which uses 128 parameters to comb 243 coastal spots in a yearly quality test, again gave Southern Italy or the Mezzogiorno top marks. Not all of Italy’s extensive coastline — 1,850 kilometers or circa 1,150 miles — makes the grade, but figures are improving.

The list can be used to decide where to go, but also where to expect crowds — in a recent poll 41% of Italians said they plan to vacation by sunning on Bel Paese beaches.There has been some jostling over the previous years’ top ten, but Southern Italian beaches continue to dominate better-known locales in Liguria and Tuscany. Famous beach spots Rimini and Riccione on the Adriatic coast were towards the bottom of these ratings, scoring two and three out of a possible five respectively.

These 10 spots received a perfect five out of five “sails” rating: Otranto (Puglia), Buoso (Sardinia), Cinque Terre (Liguria), Orosei (Sardinia) , Pollica Acciaroli e Pioppi (Campania), Tropea (Calabria), Castiglione della Pescaia (Tuscany), Arbus (Sardinia) and Tremiti Islands (Puglia).

Ratings also take into account natural beauty, contamination but also tourist structures, noise levels and environment-friendly waste systems. Sandy spots with a “four-sail” rating (30 total) include: Sirolo (Marches), Isola del Giglio (Tuscany), Positano and Anacapri.

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Related resources:
www.legambiente.com
Here’s the online free searchable guide to Italian beaches, in Italian only. Can be searched by ‘rating’ (‘punteggio’), province or region. Among the other symbols rating beaches are stars for environmental soundness and petals for tourist amenities.

The Rough Guide to Italy

www.multimania.com/natur/ita/#en
Map of Italy’s nudist camps & beaches (with terse descriptions in in English, Italian & French) in collaboration with FENAIT, Italy’s largest ‘naturist’ association. Keep in mind these are places where nudity is tolerated — associations are still awaiting a law to make nude bathing legal.

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