I have 4 days between tours and I'd like to relax on a beach (sand, not rocks) for a few days before tour # 2 starts. A nice resort with beach access would be perfect.
Thanks.
Thank you all for the great suggestions! I'll be ending a tour in Rome, and then the next one starts in Padua, 4 days later.
Where are your tours? Italy is not known for sandy beaches. Maybe Sicily, the Ionian Islands or Sardinia?
According to AI, Cala Brandinchi on Italy's island Sardinia has the best sand beach in IT. Another beach on Sardinia is Punta Molentis, Villasimius.
Lampedusa's Spiaggia dei Conigli (Rabbit Beach) is another sandy beach on an Italian island. On Sicily there are three sandy beaches: San Vito Lo Capo, Mondello and Lido Burrone, Favignana. On the island Elba there's Spiaggia di Sansone.
There are three sandy beaches on the mainland in the Puglia region: Punta Prosciutto, Torre Dell'Orso and Baia della Zagare, Gargano. The Rimini coastline also has a lot of resorts to choose from featuring sandy beaches. There is also Marasusa, Calabria and Marina di Camerota, Campania.
OC Teacher,
Consider Monterosso al Mare in the Cinque Terre. Monterosso is the only village in the C.T. with a sandy beach.
What tours are you taking?
We went to Pesaro on the Adriatic in early October a few years ago, lovely beaches, but all beach establishments closed as it was out-of-season. Super quiet, 70+ degrees Fahrenheit, only a few Germans on the beaches. Hotels were a bargain out-of-season, and the town is not touristy at all. Nearby is Ravenna for a day trip if you like.
Early October is not considered beach time in Italy. It may be now that climate has changed and temperatures are on average hotter, but, for example, the average October temperature in Rome is °C 23 to 12.
Lachera, Americans and many other nationalities as well, will go to the beach in any weather. 70F/21C will suffice for swim suits and most of us will not need a beach chair, just a towel.
In Oregon, we go year round, even bundled in puffer jackets or rainslickers, just to watch the waves and, if lucky, the whale migrations. Some build a fire and evn let the children run barefoot in the sand and build castles. Yes, we're a bit weird.
I guess it was the same thing when I went to Edinburgh in August 1988, just too see a young boy licking an ice cream cone under the pouring rain; to his family, it was summer.
In early October, I’d risk it, but you could always wait until closer to the trip and decide based on forecast.
Do you want train accessible options only?
Where does tour #2 start, so we can send you in the right direction?
If you only have 4 days (3 nights?) between tours it doesn’t really make much sense to go to Sardinia, Sicily, Puglia, Calabria, or let alone Lampedusa, basically in Tunisia, (all places with plenty of sandy beach options) unless the tours start or end near those localities.
So first I would like to know where your first tour ends and where your second tour starts.
Once I have that information I can suggest some beaches that make sense logistically. Most Americans don’t travel all the way across the Atlantic to Italy to see beaches, So most people in this forum will have to resort to Artificial Intelligence to come up with suggestions. I tend to travel to my ancestral land in July and mostly for beaches more than for art, so I can give you some good suggestions, based on personal first hand experience and not on Artificial Intelligence, but rather based on my own Natural Stupidity. However knowing the end/start point of your tours will help for my suggestions.
As usual, Roberto asks excellent questions and gives great advice!
I was just in Tarquinia last week and their beach was sandy. I didn't spend any time on it but it looks like it will have the usual beach clubs set up soon. It's not far from Rome and has fascinating Etruscan history. Plus it was a nice town to hang out in. But you didn't say if you'll be near Rome, so this is just a random suggestion. And by October, the beach clubs will have closed up shop.
You can get to/from Salerno by high-speed train from Rome. It has a relatively large sandy beach a few minutes' walk from the historic center. It is on the Amalfi Coast, so you can also ferry to the AC towns for the scenic views. Salerno is not a resort, but it has many good points, less expensive than most of the AC, the sandy beach, very good restaurants, mostly level for easy walking.
I like Chani's idea of Salerno. Salerno is a great city with a lot to offer including a great hotel next to the train station. (Plaza).
Salerno is great but very far from Padua where OP needs to be next
Could be done but uses almost a full day on travel-5-6 hour train ride
We still don’t know how many nights? 4 days would need 5 nights
The most direct route from Rome to Padua is through the interior, therefore whichever beach you will choose it will entail some detour.
Assuming you don’t have a car, these are the locations with sandy beaches that are close to a train station (walking distance in fact):
Tyrrhenian Sea between Rome and Pisa (STATIONS near beach listed from Rome north).
SANTA MARINELLA
FOLLONICA*
SAN VINCENZO
CASTIGLIONCELLO*
QUERCIANELLA
Adriatic Sea (north of Ancona up to Rimini)
MARZOCCA
SENIGALLIA**
MAROTTA
FANO*
PESARO**
CATTOLICA*
RICCIONE**
RIMINI**
Adriatic Sea between Rimini and Ravenna
IGEA MARINA
GATTEO A MARE
CESENATICO**
CERVIA*
All of the above have decent sandy beaches. Nothing compared to the outstanding beaches of Sardinia, Puglia, Sicily, etc. but those would be too out of the way for your needs.
I marked with one or more asterisks the locations that may still have some vibrant life in October, which is after the beach season is over in Italy.
