Naturist News from Italy

As promised, here is an overview of what I read in the latest issue of Info Naturista, the magazine of the Italian naturist association Fenait. Top  man Gianfranco Ribolzi returns to the old debate of naturism vs. nudism, are both different, how are they different, and can they coexist in the same organization. Naturists follow a philosophy, nudists just take off their clothes, is the usual explanation for the difference. 'The nudist gets nude to get a tan, the naturist gets a tan because he is nude,' is a quote from Ribolzi I will use again.
Fenait participates in international travel fairs each year where local naturist groups already have a stand, Utrecht and Brussels for example. The group says it distributed more than 500 flyers at those events as well as thousands of copies of its magazine. Do travel fairs outside of Europe also feature or even allow naturist associations to participate?
I already discussed the article about tattoos and piercings in my previous posting on this blog. The magazine continues with news from the local and regional naturist groups in Italy. Interesting to know: the Venice region might have a naturist beach at Jesolo, near the Laguna del Mort. According to the magazine, talks were going on earlier this year between Jesolo's city government and naturists, and optimism was the predominant tone of the talks. Naturism is apparently allowed, but the beach is not reserved for naturists only.
The Jesolo beach web site is here.
Other naturist activities include of course naturist hours at swimming pools and saunas, a frequent elements of naturism around the world, as well as beach-cleaning operations. Naturist groups also have stands at exhibitions on environmental and tourism themes.
As usual, Info Naturista ends with a bit of tourism and history, this time introducing the history of Turin with pictures of its churches and palaces.

Nudity, Tattoos and Piercing: The Italian Debate

Tattoos and piercings are one of the fads or fashions growing around the world these days, but I never thought they would touch off a stringent debate, least of all inside the naturist community, at least when I read the Italian naturist organization Fenait's magazine, Info Naturista.
To me, tattoos and piercings are like flipflops and those frames women in East Asia wear now without glasses inside. They're fads, they come and go, I don't like them, I won't participate in them myself, but I wouldn't feel offended by them or want to ban them.
Yet, the tattoo and piercing craze has caused antagonism within the naturist movement. In the latest Info Naturista, a writer named Daniele Agnoli lashes out at people who cover themselves in 'brass farthings' because they consider themselves a tribe different from ordinary people. The  authors also describes them as 'anti-social' and 'un-naturist' because they cover their body with something.
My personal opinion here is that he goes too far. Yes, a tattoo or a piercing 'covers' a piece of one's body, but only in the sense that say, a suntan lotion would. Or a wedding ring. It's different from clothes, it doesn't really hide any body parts, it just changes their color or adds to them. Even if you go to naturist resorts, like I have, you will see true naturists wear hats to protect themselves from the sun, or shoes to protect themselves against pebbles or sharp or dirty objects on the road. Does that violate naturism?
Of course, the answer is no. While I am not taking sides in the debate of whether tattoos and piercings are esthetic or not - I don't like them, but as the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder - I certainly disagree with the premise that 'real naturists don't wear tattoos and piercings.'
I can live with naturists having tattoos and piercings, even though I would never think of having them applied to my own body.
I'm sure we'll hear more about this issue in future editions of Info Naturista. The magazine also provides information about naturist events from the recent pasts, such as international travel fairs and local activities. I will try and bring you some of that information in a next posting on this blog, if my slow laptop and Internet connection allows, within the next few days.

Living Through Winter

It's hard being a naturist in winter. Personally, I still can't complain too much. Yes, right now, I'm looking out at a dreary gray mass of clouds and I have to wear clothes or I'll endanger my health. Still, weather is a variable thing. Just days ago, temperatures were around 26 degrees Celsius and there was sunshine, perfect weather for naturism if only the environment - read the other people - allowed it.
But in these winter times, I have to think of naturists who are far worse off than me. Europe's been hit by one of the coldest spells in recent memory, with frost continuing for two weeks on end, day and night. That's the kind of weather that any person, naturist or textile, would want to leave behind for good.
Yet, even in the coldest of times, there is still hope. A naturist can think of better things. Australia for example. A rare look at the CNN weather report told me that Melbourne had 32 degrees, Cairns 30 degrees, Darwin 33 degrees, Perth 34 degrees, and Alice Springs a scary and unnecessary 39 degrees. But then, that's why people in Australia call that summer.
Another way to survive winter is to pretend it doesn't exist. Like those brave people who go out swimming in mass events on the Atlantic coast of the US and Canada, or on the North Sea coast in Europe. Or people who take pictures of themselves in the snow wearing swimming suits or absolutely nothing. The former are known as Frosters, the latter as Naked Snow People, and guess which group got booted off Facebook?
Finally, if like me, you are not brave enough to venture into the snow or the icecold water, and you don't live anywhere near Australia, all you can do is dream and look forward toward the summer in your place of the world.
The people at the Italian naturist group Fenait helped me do that by sending me another edition of their magazine Info Naturista. One way to spend part of the naturist winter is to visit travel fairs which have a naturist presence, such as the January 10-15 fair in the Dutch city of Utrecht.
Staying with the magazine, it reports on an international naturist swimming competition held in Prague, the clash between naturism and neoconformism, a review of an Italian book about nudity in art, the social aspect of naturism and naturist associations, and the latest news from Italy's regional naturist associations. I live a long way from Italy, but I visited Sicily in 2006. While as we said before, naturism in Italy is still weaker than in other Western European countries, it is growing and deserves our support and attention.
With wishes of courage for all naturists to make it through this winter, I leave this blog now to make it back to the warm comfort of Twitter at http://twitter.com/thenudeguru. See you there.

World Congress of Naturists (2)

The opening of the International Naturist Federation's 32nd World Congress at the Calabrian camping of Pizzo Greco is just hours away.

Asianaturist will not be there, but we thought it interesting to see what kind of topics such a congress discusses. Apart from obvious elections of top officials and changes in the rules which only member organizations care about, there will also be a series of roundtable discussions hosted by members of the Italian naturist federation, Fenait.

Most of the topics feature the relationship between naturism on the one hand, and ecologism or "non-naturist" nudity on the other hand. Since naturism was founded a long time ago mainly as a health movement, and as a movement of going back to nature amid rapid industrial development, it is only normal for naturism today to reflect on its relationship with the new version of that concern, now titled of course ecologism or environmentalism.

The first roundtable at Pizzo Greco deals with naturism and vegetarianism. Fenait magazine Info Naturista says the group will not take a stance in favor of against vegetarianism, it will only elaborate on the links of naturism with the food movement. Personally, I don't think there should be a link. Naturism and vegetarianism are two separate ideas, and can be linked by individuals, but should become automatic or compulsory. A naturist movement that insists on vegetarianism will lose a lot of support without gaining much on the other side.

A second roundtable deals with the wider conflict between what Fenait calls "ethical naturism" and commercial naturism. The former was the idea of the founding members of the movement: going to live in the middle of nature, in what people today still call "naturist camps," with a simple lifestyle in harmony with nature. The latter is the form of naturism that dominates today: the operation of large or at least comfortable naturist resorts, where one can enjoy all the comforts of modern society, such as buffet lunches, large swimming pools, sauna, supermarket, Internet connections. The discussion will also emphasize ethical naturism as a lifestyle, i.e. it means naturism and nudity is not something just for the holidays, it continues back at home, away from the resorts. The discussion will seek an answer to the question of what today's naturists want the most. One of the topics to come up is the falling numbers of members in naturist associations: people go on holiday to resorts and hotels, but do not join associations that would allow them to live the naturist life outside of the holidays. In that light, the difference between naturists and nudists will also be discussed, with the latter being seen as more superficial, just being nude without any further philosophical dimension.

Naturism and ecology is the theme of the third roundtable. The link is logical, since the early naturists emphasized respect for nature, flora and fauna, in particular at naturist club areas. The discussion also wants to bring the naturist movement closer to the environmentalist movement.

A final roundtable handles the different perceptions of naturism and being nude in the eyes of men and women. Recruiting enough women to naturism has always been a problem. Often the male partner will first join out of interest, the female partner will be either inimical or indifferent, and only make her move later. The purpose of the roundtable, Fenait says, is to provide arguments against those in Italy and elsewhere who think naturism is not suitable for men, women and children.

Since the World Congress starts today, I expect to report more and also to find reports in the international media I can refer to in my next postings. Too bad I can't be there myself.

World Congress of Naturists (1)

Once every two years the International Naturist Federation holds a World Congress. While you could assume this is the equivalent to football's World Cup or to the Olympics, it is actually a gathering, not so much of rank-and-file naturists, but of national-level naturist organizations from all over the world.
After past congresses in Croatia and Brazil, the INF chose Italy for its 32nd World Congress. From September 8 through 12, the delegates will meet at Pizzo Greco, a camping village with a nice beach near Isola di Capo Rizzuto in Calabria, the southwestern part of Italy. While Italy is close to the European heartland of naturism, the country is actually one of the least naturism-friendly ones if you compare the number of naturist resort and free naturist beaches to neighboring countries like France, Croatia, or even Spain and Greece. The presence of the INF World Congress is supposed to help change that situation.
What happens at INF World Congresses? The movement has its own sports events, so the congress is not really to be compared with the World Cup or the Olympics. Representatives of the national naturist groups will sit down and discuss topics relevant to the current situation of international naturism, as well as put forward motions that can be accepted or rejected by votes during the congress.
Topics which will the subjects of roundtable discussions at this weekend's congress include the relationship between naturism and vegetarianism, the conflict between ethical naturism and commercial naturism, naturism and ecology, and the differences in naturist experiences by men and by women.
It will be worthwhile following the coverage of the event by the international media as well as the latest news from the congress itself.
Over the next week, Asianaturist will report more about the issues at stake and about the event. The relevant web sites are:
http://www.ifn-fni.org
http://www.fenait.org for the Italian Naturist Federation;
http://www.pizzogreco.com for the location.

Naturism at Travel Fairs and the INF World Congress

While we're on the subject of Italy, let's continue with a look at edition 45 of the Italian Naturist Association FENAIT's Info Naturista magazine.

Featuring prominently of course is the fact that for the first time ever, Italy will be the host of the International Naturist Federation INF-FNI's once-every-two-years World Congress. The magazine also reports on Italian naturists' participation in travel fairs, mostly in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The 32nd INF World Congress takes place from September 8 thru 12 at Pizzo Greco, a naturist camping resort near the town of Isola di Capo Rizzuto, in Calabria. For those of you who see Italy as a boot, then Calabria is the tip pointing toward Sicily in the far Southwest. Each Congress sees representatives from dozens of countries traveling to the destination to meet and discuss the promotion of international naturism. In 2004, Taiwan was represented at Valalta in Croatia. Info Naturista also hopes this year's event will receive a lot of attention in the Italian media. Theme of the congress is Ethical Naturism and Commercial Naturism, in other words the ever-present tension between large-scale resort ventures and small-scale, ecologically friendly campsites in forests and other remote tourism.

Talking about the ethical side, this issue of the magazine also features a report on a ecology-friendly naturist campsite in Montenegro across the Adriatic from Italy, and has a letter from a reader claiming a carnivorous nudist cannot be regarded as a true naturist, in other words, naturists should be vegetarians.

Turning to tourism fairs, in most European countries it is completely natural to have naturist resorts or associations holding a stand for their business. The magazine of course mentions Naturisme Totaal in the Dutch town of Utrecht last year, which was a travel fair completely devoted to naturism. 9,000 visitors in two days last December, the magazine reports, making sure that there will be a sequel in December 2010. The Italians were represented by four stands, each for a separate naturist resort. They were also present at the main travel fair - where most visitors might never have heard of naturism - in January this year, while Belgian naturist resorts helped distribute Italian promotion material at the travel fairs in Antwerp and Brussels.

Info Naturista again mentions the great fact that young Italians have formed a naturist association of their own, the GIN, with its own blog at http://gin.fenait.org. In addition, there are comments about the piece "Diary of a Smoker" by U.S. author David Sedaris about a first encounter with naturism. Local associations complete the magazine with reports about their winter activities, which even in Mediterranean Italy mean mostly sauna meetings safely indoors.

For a change, next time, we'll go back to Asia for a post about new associations promoting naturism in countries until now off the naturist world map. Hopefully, in the near future, they too can join the INF and be present at its World Congress.

Legal Progress in Italy

Italy seems to be making progress with legislation allowing naturism, but first let's turn to other topics in the latest edition of Info Naturista, the magazine of the Italian Naturist Federation Fenait which I receive on a regular basis. From the travails of our Italian friends, we can learn a lot about how naturism in Asia might evolve.

In his foreword, chairman Gianfranco Ribolzi mentions the year 2009 as the year of 'keeping afloat' because there was only a slight increase in membership.

However, in another article we read that worldwide, about 25 million people practice naturism, i.e. non-sexual public nudity such as swimming and sunbathing naked. So if you are in a naturism-unfriendly country in Asia, don't think you are just part of a small minority. 25 million people are already with you.

The International Naturist Federation has awarded its first world quality certificate for a naturist resort, and it went to Valalta in Rovinj, a picturesque town in the far north of Croatia, close to Slovenia and Italy. I had the pleasure of staying there back in 2004. The certificate system will be expanded to include all of Europe within the next three years.

Back in Italy, the biggest event concerning naturists has been the formation of a youth group, the Giovani Italiani Naturisti or GIN, putting to rest the often American perception that naturists are all elderly people. The group addresses naturists between the ages of 16 and 30 and will take part in a European naturist youth meet in Hamburg this year.

On the topic of legal progress, Gino Palumbo writes a report in the magazine about the different legislative proposals to allow naturism in Italy. One version wants to hide naturism too much in places "where non-naturists and children cannot see them." In fact, despite this formulation, many naturists I saw on beaches in Western Europe and at Valalta and Croatia are in fact young couples with children, and like parents everywhere, they should have the right to spend their holidays with their children, naked or not. Other problems with the new legislation include a possible bias in favor of large commercial resort operations, versus the free beaches without amenities and the small campings often run by grassroots naturists.

Palumbo also emphasizes the economic benefits of naturism. Each summer, Italian naturists hold an "exodus" to Croatia in the East and Corsica in the West to find naturist beaches and resorts, he says, and many North-European naturists just avoid Italy altogether and spend their Euros in other countries. The author points out rightly that Italy would be foolish to turn those tourists away, just like it would catastrophical if it didn't want tourists visit its churches and castles. Italy will make a fool of itself if it sends the police on to the beaches to persecute innocent naturists, he says.

One of Palumbo's suggestions is that each municipality with beaches should set aside a minimum of 5 or 10 percent of its coastline - along seas, lakes or rivers - to naturism. The measure should not only apply to beaches, but also to parks or other areas suitable for naturism, with naturist associations involved in the management of those areas.

The magazine further also mentions that a new naturist association for the Venice area saw an increase in membership of 56 percent - though it does not mention how many people that actually means - and that the group has been active in organizing sauna and dinner meetings.

As usual, the magazine concludes with a non-naturist tourism report - a visit to the ornate Stupinigi hunting lodge near Turin.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to be reporting on this blog about the next edition of Info Naturista, and more importantly, about new naturist associations in Asian countries.

Italy 2009

The latest edition of the Italian naturist magazine Info Naturista www.infonaturista.org, the official publication of the Italian Naturist Federation www.fenait.org tumbled into my mailbox again recently.
The opening editorial seems to do away with the classic differentiation between naturists and nudists, where the former are often environmentalists, vegetarians, peace activists, followers of natural medicine opposed to consumerism and alcohol, and the latter are just people who take their clothes off but keep all their other vices intact.
The difference doesn't matter, the editorial says, as long as all followers respect their bodies, each other, and the environment. The main expression of naturism is nudism, the article says.
The latest issue of the magazine has general writings of a philosophical nature as well as straightforward holiday reports - such as one bilingual English-Italian report about the Vritomartis resort on the less-frequent southern coast of Crete. The naturist hotel has no fewer than six - 6! - beaches in the neighborhood where naturism is the norm. You can find more information at www.vritomartis.gr, even though that part of the world will be mostly considered too remote for us residents of Asia. Pont Rouge in the Canadian province of Quebec might be a more likely destination.
The magazine concludes with the reviews of the activities of Italy's regional naturist organizations, including the everlasting campaign to keep the Lido di Dante beach near the historic town of Ravenna in nudist hands. There is also an extensive review of the naturist resort Le Betulle near Turin, which is run by the head of Italian naturism himself, Gianfranco Ribolzi.
If only Asia could have such naturist resorts and beaches, and such naturist magazines.