Considering the entire country is on vacation for Ferragosto in August I would suggets making plans quickly.

South of Sirolo in Le Marche is very nice beach. Around Numana. Great hotel in that area is Hotel Fortino Napoleonico. May already be booked for August.

We stayed in Levanto last year ( crunchy refers to Sestri Levante which is north toward Santa Margherita) which was fun b/c we were visiting friends in CT and Portovenere. Levanto has a bigger beach than Sestri. Much more to do in Levanto than Sestri and more charming. Water taxi from Levanto to the CT and down to Portovenere is great. We stayed at a wonderful hotel here on the beacj but again probably already booked.

Andrea Bocelli prefers Forte dei Marmi, which has huge beaches. Great area, close to Lucca, Pisa, PIetrasanta, and Liguria. Better book soon.

Between Forte dei Marmi and Portovenere are very quiet areas with beautiful beach as well but not much to do.

We love Levanto b/c it is full of locals - very nice feel to it.

I disagree with the description of Gaeta. The beaches are not great and the area is not great either.

We always enjoy Calabria and south of Naples but it is not for the faint of heart.


New fast train Rome to Bari is 4 hours. Rent car there if you are considering beach b/w Otranto and Bari, which area we also love and highly suggest.

Personally, since beach seems to be the main aim I'd go to Sardinia. There are many places beside Costa Smeralda to go. We stayed in a great hotel last August in Sardinia on the beach - reasonable, great sand, great fish - we could hardly pull the kids out of the water.

Buon Viaggio!

I am wondering, too, about Ischia--I've not been but in my reading, I see that the island has some good beaches. There certainly is a supply of good hotels with pools, too. And you have lots of sightseeing options there, too.

Do you think you would have any interest?

I wonder if anyone who has been there would care to comment about the island..

I love Andrea Bocelli's voice, but I had to chuckle at the mention of his preferred beach.

Motorino: do you have the name of that hotel in Sardinia that you refer to?

The fast train to Bari also sounds very good.

We had looked at Ischia once before, but was told it made Coney Island seem empty and was populated heavily by package tours from Germany, to the extent that menus, etc., were in German as the default.

Gee..that is not the impression I got about Ischia from reading Caroline's report here..I hope someone who has spent time there will chime in!!