A day on a Tuscan beach. Sun, sand, sea…and great food.

Obviously, we don’t get a lot of time off during the summer. Our holiday villa rental business keeps us pretty busy, and then there’s the olives, the garden…we’re pretty much on our toes the whole time. But if we can wrangle it, we like to take a day off every now and then and head to one of our favourite beaches.

Within a 2 hour drive of Podere Patrignone there are lots and lots to choose from, but our favourites include Castiglione della Pescaia, Castiglioncello, Tirrenia…there are lots of others though. The Mediterranean is usually calm and clean, the beaches are kept pristine, and the sun is shining. The kids spend the whole day in the sea, while mummy and daddy read, walk, sleep, and muck about with the kids.

But the high-light of the day, hardly surprisingly, is lunch. What do you expect? This is Italy. Most of the beach is divided up into bagni, and each bagno has a bar, umbrellas and beds for hire, showers, clean toilets, and changing rooms. And most of them have a restaurant of one kind or another selling seafood lunches. Everyone’s favourite (including the kids) is the ubiquitous frittura, lightly battered fried seafood. If you find the right place, the fish will be fresh and local, and a plate like this will set you back around €10-€15. An absolute bargain. It’s making my mouth water just thinking about it, and unfortunately, I know we won’t be able to get to the beach for another couple of weeks or more. Darn it.

All the Italian head to the beaches in August, so this is when they’ll be at their busiest. But June and September are usually quieter and much cooler.

It’s a great day out, and a welcome change for us, and for guests at our agriturismo who’d like a little change of scenery. And a huge plate of fantastic fish!

Here’s a map with some of my favourite seaside spots. I’ll write a proper piece on each of these as and when I visit them again…