{"id":515563,"date":"2026-07-15T08:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T12:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/a-country-with-pay-to-access-seas-italy-attempts-to-bring-order-to-the-bidding-process-for-its-beaches\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T08:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T12:25:13","slug":"a-country-with-pay-to-access-seas-italy-attempts-to-bring-order-to-the-bidding-process-for-its-beaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/international\/a-country-with-pay-to-access-seas-italy-attempts-to-bring-order-to-the-bidding-process-for-its-beaches\/","title":{"rendered":"A country with ‘pay-to-access’ seas: Italy attempts to bring order to the bidding process for its beaches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rome.-<\/em><\/strong> Italy is bordered by the idyllic waters of the Mediterranean, but enjoying its beaches often comes at a price: a large portion are monetized by business owners. Now, the Government is trying to restore order after years of irregularities, while the debate persists over the ‘right’ to a more ‘free’ coastline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Believe it or not, enjoying the sea in Italy is not that simple. A large part of its beautiful coastlines are ‘occupied’ by private clubs that extend their empire of umbrellas, sun loungers, and drinks at exorbitant prices across the sand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Italy arrests Dominican member of the \u2018Latin Kings\u2019 for the murder of a young man in Milan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vacationer thus has two options to take a dip: pay the -increasing- price demanded by these entrepreneurs, who by law must leave a narrow strip of sand free, or find a spot on the crowded and often neglected ‘free’ beaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A frequent phenomenon<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The phenomenon of ‘paid’ beaches has been spreading to represent more than 42% of all those in the country, with peaks of up to 70% in highly touristy regions such as Liguria (north) or Campania (south), according to data from the Italian environmental association Legambiente.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ministry of Infrastructure maintains that, in reality, it is 33%, but the organization stresses that this figure was calculated by taking the country’s entire coastline as a reference and not just the areas that allow swimming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the coasts closest to Rome, to look no further, its coastline is a succession of clubs where, to gain access, you first have to pay up: the umbrella plus sunbed combo usually hovers around 30 euros in high season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the problems derived from this privatization is that the licenses have ended up running wild and are automatically renewed year after year without major controls or transparency, which has created a kind of ‘caste’ of summer managers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reordering the sector<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Faced with this chaotic situation, the European Union has been demanding for years that Italy comply with the 2009 Bolkestein Directive and allow free competition for this type of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After decades of neglect and arduous negotiations, Giorgia Meloni’s government has taken action and decreed that by September 30, 2027, all ‘paid’ beaches, around 12,000 across the country, must be put out to a new public tender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law that has allowed for a clean slate on the Italian coast states that new tenders must have a time limit, between 5 and 20 years, and includes a mechanism to compensate former managers for the works they have carried out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the families that have traditionally profited from these beaches fear that the new tenders could open the door to large corporations and investment funds. The Government has promised to monitor the situation to prevent this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revolution of a mayor from the south<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, there are already those in Italy dreaming of reducing the number of ‘paid’ beaches by taking advantage of the new regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mayor of the town of Bacoli (south), Josi Gerardo Della Ragione, has recently undertaken a personal battle against these beach bars after a local resident was expelled from one while being shouted at as “scum” for attempting to use the restroom without paying or consuming anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Currently, of the 7 kilometers of coastline that Bacoli has, only 15% is free. We have just approved that, with the new regulations, we will free up to 80%,” the councilor of this town on the shores of the Gulf of Naples explains by phone to EFE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this reason, he has already written a letter to 180 local business owners so that they can start preparing for the new public tender or, quite simply, pack their bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Those who for 40 years have used these assets as if they were their own must leave. The free beach is a right and is part of our policies for the liberation of areas occupied by clientelist logic. We will return the sea to the citizens,” he promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 39-year-old mayor is aware that this standoff has created a “climate of tension” but argues that it is part of his job. For this reason, he has encouraged his colleagues in other Italian cities to dedicate more kilometers to free sand in the future.<\/a><\/a><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rome.- Italy is bordered by the idyllic waters of the Mediterranean, but enjoying its beaches often comes at a price: a large portion are monetized by business owners. Now, the Government is trying to restore order after years of irregularities, while the debate persists over the ‘right’ to a more ‘free’ coastline. Believe it or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":515564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[44416,43601,44182,40231,40801,40307,40853],"class_list":["post-515563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international","tag-beaches","tag-breakingnews","tag-cover","tag-dominican-republic","tag-european-union","tag-italy","tag-thetruthnewspaper"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-2a7x","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/cala_goloritze.jpg","dum_api":{"author_name":"EFE","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/1200px-EFE_logo.svg-96x96.png","categories_name":["International"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/cala_goloritze.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}