Summer in Italy’s Liguria region is all about enjoying the mild summer nights strolling with friends by the sea, eating fresh seafood on restaurant patios set up just for the season and swimming in the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea. But for the majority of Italians, summer mainly means one thing: it is time to have a tanning competition.


Italians are indeed crazy about achieving the perfect tan and they show it with pride on Italian beaches, sometimes even ‘cheating’ along the way by visiting expensive tanning salons to expedite the process. Having a white complexion during the winter months is ‘tolerated’ but showing pale arms or legs when the thermometer hits 25 Celsius, it is something to be somewhat ashamed about.

During my travels across South East Asia I came to understand that most people choose to protect their skin from UV rays and, especially women, prefer to have a white complexion. In Italy things couldn’t be more different! If your skin is white when it’s sunny outside it means you are working too much and you don’t have enough time to go the beach. Time in the sun is therefore seen as both a privilege and a seasonal ‘must do’ by Italians.

The beach is a place of relax for most people; it is a place where to read a book, catch up with the latest gossips or sleep in the sun.  For some people the beach is also a place where to engage in fun sports activities such as beach volley, rowing or diving.

       

      The beach in Liguria is divided in lots; most of these lots are privately owned and managed and just a few are public, free and open to everyone. The private lots are usually managed by single families who run a so-called ‘stabilimento’ or beach club, where one can rent beach facilities such as umbrellas, deckchairs and personal cabanas in which to change clothes.  People tend to socialize and be more open to chat with strangers at the beach club so they often create a circle of friends and choose to return to the same beach club year after year.



   Even though beachgoers dedicate most of their time to tanning, at the beach club people also have the opportunity to swim, take water aerobics classes in the pool, play card games, play foosball or gossip about other fellow beachgoers with their ‘next-umbrella neighbor’.



  It is funny to say it but it is very true that one of the saddest times of the year for Italians is when they see their tans fade away…it can only mean one thing: summer is over.