Italy's most beautiful beaches

Tourism

With 7,500 kilometres of coastline and thousands of lidos and coves, Italy is the ultimate destination for sea lovers.

Everything is on offer: from Caribbean beaches of white sand and turquoise waters to Saharan beaches, from lidos full of bathing establishments for those who like to party all day, to beaches where you can only see your beach umbrella neighbour through binoculars.

Everybody ought to be entitled to at least one full week of beach time a year. Seawater, sand, sunshine, and saline have always been recognised as being good for both mind and body.

And you don't have to be wealthy to enjoy the incredible beauty of the colours, scents, and flavours of the Italian coast. The wide range of B&Bs, holiday homes, and hotels on offer, perhaps not in the week around the August bank holiday, means that everyone can now find a suitable destination at an affordable price, even if it is only a few kilometres from home.

While there are many well-known locations, there are many that a holidaymaker has never seen. Often holidaymakers follow almost obligatory routes, but there is nothing to stop you - and in Italy, this is possible much more than in other parts of the world - from exploring in search of those "secret pearls" known only to a few, not yet discovered by mass tourism, where the food is more genuine, the water clearer, the hosts friendlier.

This special issue will provide you with a list of the best Italian beaches, region by region, more or less well known, with direct links to the accommodation facilities in the immediate vicinity, in the hope of giving you that sense of revelation that makes a tourist a traveller.

Italy's most beautiful beaches

With 7,500 kilometres of coastline and thousands of lidos and coves, Italy is the ultimate destination for sea lovers.

Abruzzo

Apulia

Basilicata

Calabria

Campania

Emilia Romagna

Friuli Venezia Giulia

Latium

Liguria

Marches

Molise

Sardinia

Sicily

Tuscany

Veneto