Beachgoers face £170 fine for saving spots on the sand

Fines: tourists will face financial penalties for leaving deckchairs on the beach

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8 August 2016

The Italian coastguard has launched a crackdown on tourists saving a spot on the beach.

Code-named Operation Sea Safe, the move will see property removed from the beach, with tourists facing financial penalties when they try to claim their things back.

Authorities up and down the country have said that anyone who leaves a towel, sun umbrella or beach chair on the sand overnight will face a fine of €200 (£170).

According to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, on Saturday coastguard in Livorno in Tuscany seized 37 deck and beach chairs, 30 umbrellas, towels and even some swimming costumes.

The Tuscan city of Cecina has made it illegal to leave any unattended equipment on the beach before it opens to bathers at 8.30am, while beach property has also been seized in Tortoreto, an area in Abruzzo, and in Roseto Capo Spulico, Cosenza, and Salerno.

Saving spots at the beach is considered an “ancient and ingrained habit” in Italy, which traces its roots back to when the first big waves of tourists came to the country after the Second World War.

The crack-down is not the first time Italian authorities have taken action against the practice - in 2007 in Liguria six tourists, who were all over 60, were fined more than €1,000 each after they laid ten towels on the beach before 6am to reserve spaces.

That same year a British coach driver was arrested, but not charged after he burnt towels that had been laid out at dawn by German tourists staying in the same resort.

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