Italian Coastal Visits

Last week we drove to the eastern coast of Italy, to the Emilia-Romagna region. It is about 110 kilometers from Borgo and takes about two and half hours on local roads, or you could drive it in under two hours on the highway, but you would have to drive out of the way and go north to Bologna before making your way south to Ravenna for a total of a one-way trip of 170 kilometers. Once there you can drive to some of the Marina towns like Marina Romea, Marini di Ravenna or Punta Marina. We had initially thought of going to Rimini, but that also presented a long triangular drive, so we chose to go to Ravenna instead.

It was an exceptionally steamy day, so Fritz was especially looking forward to dipping his toes and possibly his whole body into the Adriatic sea. As we got into town and passed street after street eyeing the beach access paths we were stumped to see restaurants lined up for what seemed like an eternity, as barriers between the street and the beach. It was around 1pm by this time so we decided to get some lunch and see if we could figure out what others or some of the locals were doing to get to the beach.

We dined on some pretty awesome seafood. We got a primi of spaghetti with seafood, the griglia misto which is a mixed grill of seafood, some grilled vegetables and when I saw the table next to us get the grilled octopus, I also had to have it as well We were seated outside under a huge tent which opened up to the beach. One step from our seats the beach started which was lined with what seemed like an endless sea of beach chairs, beyond that you couldn’t really see the sea or tell if there was an actual beach where people laid out or if it was rocky and not meant for lounging.

Except for one lone person lying in a beach chair, all the others were empty. After a very perspiring lunch of grilled seafood and a bottle of Rose, we were ready to get back into the car, crank the a/c and see if there was another way to get to the beach besides walking through a restaurant. We drove for a while longer but never did figure out how to access the beach.

 

This week we went to LIvorno on the western coast of Italy. It looks out to the Ligurian sea and if you could manage the swim across, which is greater than the distance from Ravenna to Livorno, you’d end up in Cannes. But I don’t recommend it. After doing some research on the city, I was looking forward to some shopping and Fritz was looking forward to a dip in the sea on a very hot day.

After we walked up or down what seemed like every street in Livorno, I was sure the internet had lied once again. Except for a few international retailers, there was no shopping to be had in Livorno. After our fruitless efforts, we settled down to another seafood lunch. Here too we dined on a mixed grill of seafood and an extremely tasty rice dish with a tomato base with steamed seafood.

Little did we know that would be the highlight of our day. Once we emerged from the old dimly lit restaurant into the bright hot afternoon sun at about 2pm, we were greeted with a very deserted city with even fewer shopping choices since siesta was in full swing and almost any shop that had bothered to open that day was closed. Even the tourists from the large cruise ship in port had retreated for their afternoon naps. So we decided to retrieve our car and begin the hunt for beach access roads.

In Livorno too we were left mystified that were no clear markings anywhere to indicate that you could access the beach at this spot, or whether you had to pay to access the beach, or whether you had to be a resident to park in the lot. Fritz was determined to see the beach, so we parked and he headed towards it only to return five minutes later disappointed that it wasn’t what he expected and he was ready to head home. We’ll have to work on getting him to a beach soon or he might just bust.