Italy Plus and Minus
I've never visited a naturist beach in Italy, I'm half a world away from Italy, and I have no immediate travel plans in that direction. Yet, the friendly folks there have done it again, they sent me the latest issue of their magazine, Info Naturista.
The magazine has some good news and some bad news about naturism in Italy.
First, the bad news: because of some administrative oversight, one of the country's most popular beaches could lose its naturist status. The beach in question is the poetically named Lido di Dante in Ravenna. I don't know the beach, but I do know the town. One of the most popular tourist spots thanks to its exquisite Byzantine churches and frescoes. Ravenna is also close to the renowned beach resorts of Rimini and Riccione, so you can imagine its coastline must be quite dazzling too. The independent mini-republic of San Marino is also in the neighborhood. The magazine recommends Italians write to the local government to protect the naturist beach.
Now, the good news: Sicily might get a naturist beach. I visited Sicily a couple of years ago, and it's a must destination for anyone who loves the Mediterranean. Sicily has history with monuments dating back to Greek antiquity, culture, volcanoes, and great food. My knowledge of Sicilian geography is not strong enough to be able to pinpoint where the town of Cattolica Ericlea is - where the naturists want that beach - but the campaign is receiving a lot of media attention on the island and beyond. One newspaper article mentions that Wolfgang Goethe swam nude in Sicily in 1787! A good example to follow, I'd say.
Info Naturista's latest edition also includes a travel report from a remote naturist resort in Brazil - the country where the International Naturist Federation is holding its world congress very soon.
Other articles report on a youth naturist meeting on a chilly day in the Netherlands, and defend the existence of naturist resorts against the so-called free beaches where everyone has access. I don't think I agree with the stark choice it makes, though I am a strong advocate of tough supervision of free beaches, preferably by bona fide naturists.
My Italian is just good enough to get the main drift of the articles, and I'm sure I'll be back here reporting on the next edition of Info Naturista in a couple of months time. If you want more information, you can visit www.infonaturista.org.