Sea side in Italy
 

Good Evening All

I will be traveling to Italy in Sept 2016. The plan is to start in Venice, 7nts, northern Tuscany, 7nts and then a sea side stay for 7 nights. What I am looking for is a place where a can hear the ocean at night and still be in an area that is not overly crowded. I do not want to stay in the Cinque Terre. Maybe, Comoglie or outside of the CT. I will have a car for the trip excepting Venice and maybe Comoglie. Any thoughts?

Thank you.

Not sure you will hear the sea if weather is good. Not an ocean.

No Italian beach will be crowded in September. Most of them will be deserted in the second half of September, except a few tourist ghettos - most of them in the south - and the beaches of Lampedusa.

If you're wanting to stay in the Liguria area, then Camogli, Rapallo, St Margherita Ligure are all good choices.

Of those, we prefer SML and have stayed there several times over the last 5 years or so, but this is the Med and you won't hear waves on the beach unless the weather isn't so good as mentioned.

Agree the Med is perfectly smooth (and boring) unless there is a storm - not crashing waves like you get on the Atlantic or Pacific.

Italy has no ocean coast, just the Mediterranean and its branches (the Adriatic Sea, the Ligurian Sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Ioncic Sea, and so forth.

As mentioned above, these seas usually have small and gentle waves. Other than the sound of the sea, are there other characteristics you're looking for?

Along the Riviera, there are a few places that tend to get noticeable waves. The town of Levanto is one of them, but I don't know if there are seaside hotels. Likewise Nervi, closer to Genova, has a very active, rocky seacoast, but don't know if the hotels there overhang the sea closely enough to hear it. Castello Canevaro is Zoagli is a rocky perch, but although Zoagli has a train station, most trains bypass it, so there is only limited train service. The tiny thrust-out town of Tellaro is practically in the water, but you need a bus ride or taxi to the nearest train station (La Spezia).

Some of the other towns being mentioned -- Santa Margherita Ligure, Rapallo -- have fairly deep harbours and protective jetties for their marinas, so not a lot of chance of hearing waves. In Camogli, there are a fair number of lodgings directly on the sea (Cenobbio dei Dogi, La Camogliese, La Casmona, I Tre Merli) but it needs to be a somewhat windy week for the waves to start to get audible.

In September the Italian Riviera is quite lively with tourists, especially on weekends. Only le Cinque Terre and Portofino get "overrun," but if you are looking to hide from the world, then a totally off-the-radar choice like Zoagli, or Bogliasco, Deiva Marina or Tellaro would be the ticket.

Thank you all for your responses. I never really considered how calm the Med was. My only experience was a Marine Corps sponsored cruise off Beirut for 30 days! And that was 30 years ago.

Rubicund and sandralist thank you for your suggestions.

Lastly, if one decided to stay on the eastern coast of Italy, what would your recommendations include? A car would be available for day trips.

In the Liguria area I stayed in Rapallo at the Hotel Italia. My room was right over the sea, right over the adorable little castle that juts out into the water. I think I recall hearing the water gently lapping the shore from my room even though it was nice weather. (No crashing waves as the others have said). http://www.italiaelido.com/

We also enjoyed staying in Polignano which is a sea side town in Puglia but that's pretty far from your other destinations. I'd go with Rapallo. And you don't need a car for day trips. The train goes everywhere, and 'in season' the boats do as well.

The east coast is a long way from north to south and there are lots of choices from north of Rimini down to Lecce. You're going to have to be a bit more specific.

I like the areas around Ancona and Pescara.

Adriatic coast: the most scenic places (with beaches) are Vieste and Peschici.

I second the Vieste idea.

Rubicund since I will be farther north ie Venice and maybe as far south as Bologna, I was hoping to find something in that neighborhood. Ancona might fill the bill.

neckervd...I am thinking that Vieste and Peschici might be a little to far south, but it really looks interesting.

If you want to stay further north, then maybe Rimini might fit the bill. It has a good beach and some nice restaurants and hotels. It's very accessible from Bologna, straight down the autostrada.

Rimini is over crowded!!

Portonovo, just south of Ancona, is on a scenic bay at the foot of Mount Conero. The beach is mostly pebbles, rather than sand, and it's also a small beach, very crowded on summer weekends. There are other beaches on the Riviera del Conero that are larger, but I don't know them very well.

I'm not a big beach person, but my favorite beach in the area is Senigallia, not far from where I live. It's a nice wide, sandy beach, and the town of Senigallia is not just a beach resort, but a lively town with a medieval center, lots of quirky little shops, and excellent restaurants, including two with two Michelin stars (Uliassi and Madonnina del Pescatore). (Of the two, I prefer Uliassi.) It's maybe not the best beach for swimmers, because the slope into the water is very gradual. You have to walk quite far out to find water deep enough to swim in. It's also not a particularly scenic beach, and there's no possibility of hearing the sea at night, partly because the beach is so wide.

Inland of Senigallia, there are lots of charming hill towns, which are easier to visit if you have a car, although there is bus service to some of them. There are also several places you can visit by train and bus, such as the medieval ducal seat of Urbino, or the caverns of Frasassi.

Further south in Le Marche, the town of Torre de Palme, while it has no beach, is a tiny walled town on a cliff high above the sea. It wouldn't be a good place to stay for more than a few nights unless you had a car, because the choice of restaurants is very limited, and a car would be the best way to get to the nearby beaches (of which Porto San Giorgio is highly recommended by friends of ours from Milan who have a summer house there).

The OP is travelling in late September for this leg of his trip, Rimini will have quietened by then.