How Italian beaches are coping with overtourism Between limited access and sit-ins by associations

The issue of public beaches in Italy has in recent years attracted growing attention from the public, institutions, and the media, due both to the tourist pressure on Italian coastlines during summer months and to matters concerning the management of state-owned maritime areas and the right of free access to the sea. This touches on multiple dimensions—environmental, legal, economic, and social—but mainly develops along two closely connected lines: on the one hand, the need to preserve fragile coastal environments through access regulation measures; on the other, the problem of the systematic occupation of long stretches of coastline by private beach resorts, often in the absence of proper application of concession laws. Regarding the management of tourist flows, some local authorities in recent years have introduced mandatory booking systems to access highly frequented but small beaches that cannot sustain mass presence without suffering environmental consequences. This measure was already implemented during the pandemic, when health restrictions required access control to ensure social distancing, and is now being revived with different aims—more oriented towards sustainability and land conservation.

This is the case, for example, with some beaches in Sardinia, a region that suffers heavily from tourist pressure during the summer: in Stintino, access to the well-known La Pelosa beach is limited through a reservation system and a small fee, while in Baunei, for Cala Goloritzé (accessible only by foot or sea), the number of daily entries has been capped to protect the area’s biodiversity. In Lazio as well, the town of Sperlonga has adopted similar measures for the beach in front of Tiberius’ cave, aiming to protect an area of both natural and archaeological interest. In all these cases, the logic is not privatization, but rather active land management, based on environmental sustainability and responsible use of shared resources. In recent years, thanks to increased media attention and growing activism on social networks, there has been broader civic engagement—especially among younger generations—on the issue of overtourism, which directly impacts the availability of public beaches. In many Italian coastal locations, gaining access to stretches of shoreline not occupied by private beach resorts has become increasingly difficult.

In this context, access regulation measures introduced in some beaches serve—albeit partially—the purpose of shielding coastal ecosystems from the effects of overcrowding, promoting a tourism model more mindful of the territory’s carrying capacity and the collective right to enjoy public space. Alongside these institutional initiatives, recent years have seen the rise of grassroots movements aiming to refocus attention on the right to free access to Italian beaches, especially concerning the private use of coastal areas that are formally part of the public domain. In several locations, citizen groups and associations have long been staging symbolic protests, placing umbrellas and towels in zones typically occupied by private resorts, to highlight the principle that every beach is a common good and everyone should be able to access it freely, without having to pay.

The rationale behind these protests is supported by a series of civil rulings that have determined many beach concessions today lack legal grounding due to the automatic renewal mechanism. This system has been extended several times by Italian legislation, despite a 2006 EU directive requiring member states to tender all concessions involving the economic exploitation of public assets—including beaches. In theory, concessions should be awarded through transparent, competitive procedures, but in practice, in Italy, they are often renewed for the same parties for decades, with very low rental fees and no real evaluation. For this reason, in 2020, the European Commission launched an infringement procedure against Italy for failing to implement the directive.

To date, however, no government has taken concrete steps to reverse this trend. On the contrary, the expiration of existing concessions has been further postponed until 2027. Over the years, national governments—both right and left—have avoided establishing clear rules for organizing tenders, while many municipalities (formally responsible for managing maritime state property) claim they are unable to act due to the lack of national legislation or insufficient administrative personnel. According to numerous associations, however, these obstacles exist only on paper. The Public Procurement Code already provides a sufficient regulatory framework to initiate public tenders, even without a specific law on beach concessions. What’s missing, according to this perspective, is the political will to intervene in a sector where entrenched interests are very strong. In many small coastal towns, in fact, the relationships between local administrators and beach resort operators are often marked by personal or family ties, and political consensus may significantly depend on the support of these economic players.