Beaches, beaches ...and Italian beaches!

Hurrah! After a leisurely drive around the ring road of Rome and with a storm running just behind us as we headed south, we followed up a on couple of recommendations from friends for places to visit on the coast not that far south of Rome. The first was Sabaudia and as we were still in the Lazio region we were hopeful but not holding our breath on finding a public access beach where we might be able to free camp. We knew before we set off that the coastline would be a bit of a challenge in Italy but we had heard tell of peeps who had found good beaches once they got south of Rome… So Sabaudia carried our hopes and dreams…

And it delivered! Set back from a long dune backed beach there was plenty of access to beaches that were not all carved up into concessions – and even where they were there was still enough of a shoreline to have a good old fashioned walk! The town itself is a Mussolini era 30s stylised new-town and interesting for a wander – but the sound of the sea was calling!

We could have free camped in a beach side car park here but as it was still early and we were keen to keep heading away from the storm that was following us, we decided to chance our luck and head off to Sperlonga – just round the headland in the picture and further south and east. For a while it looked as if we had made a terrible mistake as the coast rapidly turned into private concession after concession. Just as dusk was falling, tempers were getting frayed and hope was disappearing, we chanced across a turning for the sea. And at the end of the now familiar bumpy track we found a beach with both public access and a car park we could camp up in. We could see the storm approaching so we settled in for the night and hoped that the next day would bring sun and a chance to explore the beaches.

Next day we woke to a sunny day after a night of rain and roaring seas, so we set of to see what the beaches had in store… From a very helpful public info board right near where we were camped we could see that although there were concessions along the coast here, there was also plenty of public access along the whole stretch.

So we first explored to the west where we found some quirky concessions but mainly open beaches…

And then we headed east towards Sperlonga where we found an example of the sort of campsite that makes us keen to free camp….

…the sort of private beach that keeps us looking for open access beaches…

…and some lovely walking to Sperlonga itself :)

Looking back from Sperlonga you can see what a lovely bay this is and how it is possible in certain bits of the Italian coastline to combine private and public access – if you look hard you can just make out the jetty wall where we are camped in the distance – a good old yomp!

We’ve had a lovely couple of sunny days camping here and now we’ve decided to head off for more antiquity en route to Sicily – so Pompeii here we come!

S.