Beach towns
Holders of the national award for clean bathing water and well-run beaches.
19 lists
The best small beach towns in Italy that nobody sells you, all of themEvery coastal town in our catalogue under twenty thousand people, on all four seas, ordered by outside recognition. Blue Flags, fishing harbours, the beaches Italians go to.
The best hidden beach towns you can reach by train in the province of CosenzaOn the Ionian and Tyrrhenian edges of the province of Cosenza, small Calabrian beach towns with clean bathing water sit within walking distance of their own railway stations, backed by Norman castles, citrus groves and long shingle shores.
The best beach towns worth staying overnight in PugliaPuglia's coast runs from limestone cliffs above the Adriatic to the shallow, pale-sand bays of the Ionian, and the towns along it hold clean bathing water awards alongside hotels a travel guide has vouched for. These are the places to sleep rather than day-trip, with the sea a short walk from breakfast.
The 8 best hidden beach towns with a food festival in LiguriaAlong the Ligurian coast, clean bathing water and a summer calendar of one-ingredient food festivals meet in the same small towns: anchovies fried on the quay, focaccia col formaggio pulled hot from the oven, basil pounded in marble mortars. These are the smaller beach towns where both things are true.
The 7 best beach towns inside a nature park in PugliaPuglian beaches where the sand runs into protected dune pinewood rather than a seafront strip: clean bathing water, Aleppo pines, watchtowers and limestone towns behind them, from the Ionian shore of the Salento to the olive plain below Ostuni.
The best beach towns within 90 minutes of PisaThe Tuscan coast north of Pisa runs from the marble quarries of the Apuan Alps down to long flat sand, with clean bathing water certified along the whole stretch, seafood fried at the port and bathing huts painted in rows.
The 6 best beach towns with a serious restaurant in CampaniaAlong the Campanian coast, clean bathing water and a kitchen worth booking often turn up in the same small town, from the anchovy boats of the Cilento to the lemon terraces above the Bay of Naples. These are the seaside places where lunch is the reason to stay.
The best small beach towns that eat well in LiguriaSmall stretches of Ligurian coast where the bathing water is clean enough to hold the national award and a dining guide has picked out a table in town: anchovies under salt, trofie with pesto, sea urchins in spring, and houses painted ochre and rose above the shingle.
The best beach towns in the province of GenovaBeach towns along the Riviera di Levante east of Genova, from pebble coves under painted houses to sandy bays and the fried anchovies and focaccia col formaggio that go with them. Each holds the national award for clean bathing water and well-run beaches.
The best hidden beach towns in PugliaPuglia has eight hundred kilometres of coast and the crowds concentrate on about thirty of them. These are the smaller seaside towns on the same two seas, each with water measured clean rather than assumed clean.
The best beach towns in the province of SalernoBeach towns along the province of Salerno's coast, from the Amalfi cliffs down to the long Cilento shore, each holding the national award for clean bathing water and well-run beaches.
The best beach towns in the province of SavonaThe Riviera delle Palme and Riviera di Ponente coast in the province of Savona, where a run of beach towns all hold the national award for clean bathing water and well-run beaches. Sand rather than shingle in many of them, plus a caruggi and a fish market behind the seafront.
The best beach towns in the province of LatinaThe Tyrrhenian coast south of Rome runs through dune, lagoon and limestone headland, and the beach towns of the province of Latina all hold the national award for clean bathing water and well-run beaches. Fondi, Gaeta, Minturno, Sabaudia, San Felice Circeo, Sperlonga and Terracina, with the sea, the buffalo mozzarella and the fried anchovies to prove it.
The best beach towns in AbruzzoAbruzzo's Adriatic shore runs long and flat and sandy, backed by pinewoods and, further inland, by lakes under the Apennines. These are the towns along it that hold the national award for clean bathing water and well-run beaches.
The best beach towns in SardegnaBeach towns around the Sardinian coast, from Gallura's granite headlands to the dunes north of the Gulf of Asinara and the lagoons of the west, all holding the national award for clean bathing water and well-run beaches.
The best hidden beach towns in CampaniaBeach towns along the Cilento coast, the Sorrento peninsula and Capri where the bathing water carries the national award for cleanliness and well-run beaches. Smaller places on the Campanian coast, with clear notes on what to see and how to arrive.
The best hidden beach towns in CalabriaTen Calabrian beach towns on the Tyrrhenian and Ionian coasts, each holding the national award for clean bathing water and well-run beaches, from cliff coves near the Policastro gulf to the long sand and citrus plains of the Sibari coast.
The best beach towns you can reach by train in CampaniaCampanian coast towns served by regional rail, from the Circumvesuviana line above the Bay of Naples to the Cilento stations south of Salerno, all with clean bathing water and beaches you can walk to from the platform.
