Our Second Roman Beach Season

Hopes were high for our second summer beach season in Rome. Last year we were able to visit about half a dozen popular spots near to Rome and this year hoped to fill in some of the gaps. In fact, we made our first ‘beach’ trip long before the season opened with a visit to Fregene in April, just to start getting the engines revved.

From there, we enjoyed a lovely long weekend on Ischia at the end of May to start the summer proper. Although we spent more time by the pool and walking and exploring the town than by the sand and sea, the hardcore beach set were already out in the small stabilimenti near our hotel.

Since we didn’t quite beach enough in Ischia, I insisted we go to Ostia the following weekend. We were hoping to find our new favourite beach club after surveying a few last year and ended up at a place called Venezia. Unfortunately, the pool wasn’t open until July and the sea quite choppy (typical Ostia probs). We still had a nice breezy bright day and got to dip our toes.

In June, we were caught up in out-of-Italy travel in Poland and France and likely missed the best sunning weather of the season in Rome. Very few complaints were made as we visited old and new favourites in both countries, including some beauties in the South of France.

We returned to Rome and faced an absolute wall of heat for the heart of the summer. It was noticeably hotter than last year and made all outdoor excursions almost unbearable during the day. Temperatures were the in the 37-38 range for the better part of six weeks and made the sand feel like lava. Although Aleksander had grown out of his habit of last year of eating sand, this year it was impossible to explain to him that he needs to stay off of it for the sake of his feet. All that to say that we mostly stayed indoors until Dalia’s mom arrived in August and we braved the heat for two beach days: one new in Anzio and another old favourite at Santa Marinella.

As the intense summer heat finally started to wane ever so slightly, we hosted Dalia’s brother and family and spent a few nights in the absolutely lovely city of Gaeta. We were debating between Gaeta and Sperlonga for a little bit but the prices were much more reasonable in Gaeta and we were not disappointed. Except, that as quickly as the heat had dissipated, the winds had picked up and seemed to signal the end of the this year’s beach season. In fact, we walked into the empty beach club and they let us stay if we ordered a drink, rather than the standard 40€ day fee. All good things come to an end and so did our enjoyable but a bit scattered and sweltering summer season of 2022.

As with all things travel related in Italy, you will actually never see everything and will always discover more to experience. Next year, we hope to get to Sperlonga, maybe the Amalfi, perhaps the coast near Tuscany and to finally make our already twice postponed trip to Puglia in the South-East of the country. We’re not exactly running out of time here but we may be running out of summers in Italy. We’ll really have to focus next year to get it all done!