This summer in Italy, a fierce debate over the country’s beaches made big waves. Though the spiagge is public by law, stretches from Amalfi to Liguria are now dominated by private concessions. These operators charge hefty fees for colourful umbrellas, cushioned sunbeds and private entry. Soaring prices for access to shade, showers and sustenance sparked national debate – and even protests – as Italians questioned whether their right to the sea was being priced out of reach.

While the private beach-club model exists all over Europe, nowhere has it proliferated to such an extent as in Italy. In the municipality of Gatteo, on the country’s Adriatic coast, some expanses of sand are almost entirely privatised and packed full of small family-run businesses. Concessions pay low fees to the state (averaging a total of about €100m annually) despite occupying prime public land. While there are laws that are meant to guarantee everyone a sunny spot to spread out a towel, the reality is rather different, with punters being charged simply for accessing the beach or having to fight for a tiny strip of free sand.

Though Italians are used to factoring the cost of beach beds into their annual trip, this summer saw costs rise to an unsustainable level, with the country’s media announcing a “crisis of the middle class”. As holidaymakers increasingly chose to forsake the beach due to spiralling fees, people – and EU lawmakers – have begun to wake up to the management monopolies and the lack of free beaches in Italy. 

Earlier this summer, there was an outcry in Sicily after the Italo Belga company installed turnstiles at the entrance to a large beach club at Palermo’s Mondello beach. Many felt that the added fencing restricted access to what the law guarantees as a free shoreline. The turnstiles were eventually removed after several politicians got involved.

In 2006, when the EU passed the Bolkestein directive, aiming to promote the freedom of establishment by making the market fairer, more transparent and open to transnational competition, Italy was dragged along kicking and screaming. And while the nation agreed to end automatic renewals of beach concessions following a 2016 European Court of Justice ruling, governments have delayed its implementation on successive occasions. 

Still, the current far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni has evidently agreed to put 28,000 concessions for beach bars up for a bidding process by June 2027 (barring another last-minute decision to delay, which could lead to potential fines from Brussels). 

Beyond a fairer system of beach management, some also want to see an equal split between free and paid-for beaches. This is also demanded by the president of Italy’s Mare Libero (“Free Sea”) organisation, Roberto Biagini. The lawyer and former city councillor speaks to Monocle from Rimini.

Why is the lack of free beaches particularly bad in Italy?
Because in Italy there isn’t a serious political class. Left, right, centre, the Five Star [populists] and technical governments have all been under the thumb of the beach establishment lobby. 

Is there a beach concession mafia? 
I didn’t want to say it but you did, so I’ll add to it. There’s a mafia-like system of electoral exchange between politicians and the beach businesses. Just think – we have had and currently have owners of beach concessions sitting in parliament. 

Is that not a conflict of interest?
It’s a serious conflict of interest. We have mayors and city councillors who own bathing establishments, as well as regional presidents with family ties to these businesses. How can these individuals – and their legislation – go against their own investments?

The state isn’t making a lot of money from beach concessions either, is it?
When you divert a public asset from collective use, you take [virtually] nothing because there’s a [low] fixed price per square metre for public property. Do you know how much a beach bar in Italy pays in concession fees? Many are paying the minimum amount of €3,225 per year. But when it comes to selling a beach business, which includes the use of the concession, the seller might ask for €1m to €1.5m – even if they’re only paying just over €3,000 for the concession. You can see how the political will is missing. 

Is everything set to change in 2027?
The extension of [existing] concessions [to 2027] has already been declared illegal by some regional courts, like with the other extensions that started back in 2009 under [former prime minister] Silvio Berlusconi, who pushed the date forward to 2012 and then 2018. Now it’s 2027 but it could continue ad infinitum. In theory, judges or the public administration should cancel these extensions. If Italy were a serious country, the port captaincy or the municipal police would go to the beach and explain: You can’t be here. A judge should seize the beach establishments because [technically] the concessions have expired. 

Do people understand the problem? 
That’s a great question, because it wasn’t something people felt much before. But now, when they’re asked to pay to enter a beach, or spend €20 to €40 to rent an umbrella for a day, they have started to question whether they can afford it. Many young people in Rimini ask me about a free beach, and I don’t know what to tell them. A free beach is like air – you only realise that it’s important when you start to lack it. 

Is this a battle you can win, given that you’re going up against money, power and politics?
This is a battle we’ll win because Italians are starting to understand. We’ll win because we believe in protecting human rights. We owe it to our founding fathers, who died to give us freedom. Freedom also means being able to go for a swim without having to pay a pizzo [mafia-like illegitimate payment]. When such a system doesn’t exist in Greece, Spain, Portugal or Croatia, does it need to exist in Italy? Have we returned to fascist times? I can assure you that I’ll keep fighting.