spiaggia, spiaggia, spiaggia

The beach at Paestum

Beach, beach, beach. Laura and I are two of the biggest beach bums I know so it is no surprise that each and every one of the eight days spent in Salerno was actually mostly spent at a beach somewhere relatively close by. We managed to see six beaches in total, a few of which we visited twice. Below is a recap and rating of each of those beaches accompanied by tales of our experiences there.

LA BAIA (4/6)

This beach is about a 30-40 minute walk (or 15 minute bus ride) from Salerno’s center. We opted to walk so we could stroll by the ocean and flit through micro-scenes of daily life. It was not our favorite beach but was convenient and got the job done so we went twice. La Baia is not a sandy beach but consists of very small pebble-sized rocks which were actually pretty comfy. The beach is fairly dirty, but actually all of the beaches we went to in our time together were much dirtier than those in California. I’m guessing the “nobody likes a dirty beach” mentality hasn’t made it here yet. We did swim quite a bit both times but I wouldn’t go swallowing lots of ocean water or spending all day in it since it is still close to one of the main ports. Another main difference between beaches in Italy and other beaches I’ve been to in America is that peddlers constantly approach beach-goers with various knick-knacks. They’ll even wake you up if you fall asleep. The one peddler I did buy from sold various flavors of granita (Italian shave-ice) for €1, he would hand-shave a big block of ice under the umbrella on his cart and then pour the liqueur of choice over. For the espresso flavor, he would add the ice to a giant bottle filled with the freshly brewed elixir. Both visits here also provided great Italian practice, mostly with high-school aged kids inviting us out for McDonald’s dates, but also with a few young girls and a couple of older dudes who I kicked and juggled my €3 pallone around with. One such man decided it was a great idea to do so whilst holding his 1 year old baby girl…just let that image sink in. All in all, La Baia provided great fun and interaction, but could use a little Surfrider love. 

Man juggling whilst holding small child

Espresso granita

Limone granita

MAIORI (1/6)

Maiori was my favorite of all the beaches we visited, it was a good compromise of (mostly) sand, clean water, solitude, and lots of swimming. We also came here twice and both times I got a lot of reading, sun, and swimming in. This was where we learned how to ask if there were sharks, “sono squali qui?” and that medusa means jellyfish and not shark. I loved floating in the water here because I could hear the rocks drag across the bottom of the ocean floor as the waves pushed them back and forth. Our second visit was sweet but cut short by an impending thunderstorm. This beach came as a recommendation from one of the teens we met at La Baia who wrote Laura cute love note in my Moleskine where she had a bunch of Italian phrases and words written down: “I love you. From your Italian favourite friend!”
 

FORNILLO (2/6)
Fornillo Beach is a beautiful little beach in Positano that would have beaten out Maiori if it had sand. The rocks here are very dark and large so not only were they hot enough to burn your feet, but they also were not ideal in terms of comfort. Laura bartered with Emmanuele, the first man we encountered selling beach space, and scored us two chairs, an umbrella, a locker, and a kayak rental for €15 (€7.50 each). Side note: A lot of beaches in the Amalfi region have both free and private areas, free areas are devoid of amenities and often have all the trash from the private areas pushed on them. Fornillo is a ten minute walk from the main Marina Grande beach of Positano and has far fewer people. The water here was so clear, but filled with jellies farther out from shore so we did not swim much but enjoyed our two hour kayak ride immensely. Emmanuele also practiced Italian and English with us at the end of the day. I was really impressed because his English was almost perfect and he told us he has lived on the beach his whole life—his family owns the hotel and bar behind the section we were on—so he never learned English in school, just through the twenty years of practice he has logged selling beach space. 

PAESTUM (3/6)

Paestum is another beach that almost has it all goin’ on. Our favorite fruit man from Salerno warned us of the beach’s shallow waters, but we were still a little surprised by the lack of depth. To swim, you have to go about 100m out from the shore. We finally got to do this simultaneously because we indulged in the coolest rentable, lockable change rooms (California, please take note). They are painted in alternating primary colors they line both sides of the main beach entrance from the south end of the ruins. For €4 (€5 in high season) you can get a key for a room from the woman at the bar cafe and gain access to the bathrooms and showers. Paestum not only wins for best, most exciting, change rooms but it also is the only truly sandy beach we visited, much like the sand at Big Beach in Maui or back home at Carmel Beach and it also stretches on for probably 20km from what I could see. We played soccer with yet another group of young boys and I realized that I never really saw girls participating in much physical activity. I asked the boys in Italian if girls in Italy exercise and they responded, “No! Solo mangiare!” (they only eat). As funny as it was coming from a rambunctious little nine year old, I know there are girls somewhere in Italy that play soccer because they form a whole team of them for every World Cup and Olympic event, I just haven’t found them yet! Lots of male beach-goers in Italy play a fun game similar to the way rebounding at a shared hoop works in a basketball gym; one guy swims out and acts as goalie and the rest take turns kicking the ball from PK distance into the ocean, whoever gets blocked or hits the water or beach in front of the goalie then becomes the new goalie. There’s a photo for reference of the youngsters playing with some very hilariously dramatic older men.
 

CAPRI PORT MAKE-SHIFT, NO-NAME, BEACH (5/6)

There will be an upcoming post detailing the Capri day trip we took, but just to be thorough in this beach report, I’ll share a bit about this chunk of beach. After getting majorly lost on Capri after lunch, we decided to just give up our search for a nice beach location and head back to the port. After hours of walking in the hot sun we were desperate enough to jump in the ratty little area by our ferry port. I can’t complain much because I gathered quite a bit of sea-glass and power-napped for 40 minutes. 

FURORE/PRAIA MARINA? WE WEREN’T REALLY SURE (6/6)

Still not sure if we actually made it to the Furore cave/niche beach we drooled over on Pinterest, but either way, as enticing as this little beach looks from the top of the hill, it was by far the most icky in terms of water cleanliness. On such a hot day, this was quite unfortunate. We hopped back on the bus and made haste toward Maiori. This was also a rocky beach but the rocks here are lighter in color and weight than those at Fornillo so they were actually cool and comfortable to lay on—shame the water was so mucky!