The decline of summer vacations in Italy: Families now only go to the beach on weekends

July, and then August, have set off alarm bells on Italy’s beaches, as a trend becomes more established: fewer and fewer families are spending one or two weeks in a seaside town because they can no longer afford it, and the beach is only filling up on weekends. In contrast, the number of foreign tourists staying for longer holidays is growing, and they are the ones most visible from Monday to Friday.

The local press has been amplifying the issue, framing it as a symptom of middle-class struggles, and after weeks of images of surprisingly empty beaches during the week, the opposition has begun to take it seriously. They have accused Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of selling “a postcard Italy” where everything seems fine, when in reality “millions of Italians cannot go on vacation.” Last week, Meloni replied that the opposition was spreading fake news and “damaging the country’s image.”

The warning first came in July from private beach operators, as Italy has a peculiar tradition — often controversial and surprising to foreign visitors — that half of its beaches are run, under public concession, by private establishments, a practice dating back to the 1920s and the wooden bathing huts of the time. These businesses set up rows of paid umbrellas and sunbeds, available at daily, weekly, or monthly rates.

In many coastal areas, they dominate the beach, alongside the free beach sections. There are about 7,000 such companies across the country, serving as a fine-grained barometer of social habits. But part of the debate now is whether this very model of leisure is in crisis, as people are increasingly unwilling to pay to go to the beach.

“We are seeing the impoverishment of the middle class, because we are part of it — they are our clients. The grandparents’ vacations with their grandchildren, while the parents worked, had already disappeared, and now fewer and fewer families are coming,” laments Simone Battistoni, owner of the historic Bagno Milano in Cesenatico, speaking by phone.

Cesenatico is a seaside town on the Adriatic coast, the so-called Riviera Romagnola, centered around Rimini and Riccione — longtime destinations for Italy’s middle class, with more affordable prices. Renting an apartment for a week there can range from €600 ($700) to €800 ($930), rising to €1,000 ($1,100) or €1,200 ($1,400) in pricier parts of the country.

Battistoni’s establishment is a century old, his family has run it for three generations. He knows the business well and offers all kinds of services, including a library. “It’s been a trend for some years, but this summer it has accelerated — there’s a clear consumption crisis,” he says. With 23 employees, Battistoni also chairs the Italian Beach Union (SIB) in the Emilia-Romagna region, representing 400 beach establishments, and insists the feeling is widespread.

According to his experience, it is increasingly common for families in July to stay home, and go only on the weekend to the beach — which in Italy is geographically possible from almost anywhere. Then, in August, they take vacations abroad, to cheaper destinations such as Albania, Tunisia, and Morocco. According to SIB data, these Italian families are being replaced by foreigners. Traditionally these tourists come from Germany and France, but there has been a rise in visitors from Nordic countries, Poland, and Eastern Europe. And there is also a surge of U.S. tourism in Sardinia.

This disappearance of the traditional family summer holiday is a nationwide trend in Italy, confirms the president of the SIB at the national level, Antonio Capacchione. Similar warnings have emerged in recent days on the other side of the peninsula, along the coast of Viareggio and Versilia, in Tuscany’s Tyrrhenian seaboard, which usually attracts an upper-middle-class tourism. Except for Forte dei Marmi, an exclusive destination known as the southernmost “Russian beach” in Europe due to the number of wealthy Russian visitors it receives. Only luxury tourism areas seem untouched by the gradual retreat of families. And that’s despite the fact that at Forte dei Marmi’s famous Twiga Beach Club, the so-called imperial tent costs €1,500 ($1,750) a day in August.

“There is a polarization of attendance over weekends and a weakness in domestic demand from Italians,” confirms Capacchione, underscoring one striking fact: last year was the first time in history that Italy recorded more foreign tourists than nationals. “Last summer was saved by foreign tourism,” he warns. He says that month- or two-month-long rentals, the long summer holiday, “are already a distant memory,” but at least until recently people would still book a week or 10 days. “Now it’s just Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,” he concludes.

Battistoni believes it is not so much that rental or hotel prices have risen dramatically, but rather that Italians’ capacity to save during the rest of the year has shrunk and the cost of living has gone up. Figures from the latest International Labour Organization (ILO) report speak volumes about Italy’s situation: wages remain stuck at 1990s levels, the lowest among advanced G20 economies. The loss in wages compared to 2008, when the last crisis began, is 8.7% (compared to 4.5% in Spain).

According to a recent Eurostat study published in July 2025, 27% of Europeans cannot afford a week of vacation. In Italy, that figure rises to 31.4%, placing it first in absolute numbers: 18.5 million people. In Spain the figure is 33.4%, or 16.2 million people.

The fact is that in Italy, holiday costs often include the cost of the beach itself — that is, of these private establishments — both by custom and because often there is simply no other choice. It is a debate that flares up every summer, and has been heated for years, because since 2006 the EU has been demanding that the sector be liberalized and licenses awarded through public tenders, instead of being automatically renewed as they have been for generations. The industry employs 60,000 people, and every Italian government has kept postponing a decision. Meloni has delayed it until 2027.

According to the environmental association Legambiente, in some regions private occupation of beaches reaches 70%, as in Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, and Campania. In Naples, an extreme case, in only 200 meters of the 27-kilometer coastline is there free access. Camaiore (Tuscany) has the highest concentration of beach establishments: 92 meters of free access along three kilometers of coast.

Beach resorts offer a galaxy of options, ranging from luxury to bare-bones — clubs with swimming pools, water slides, restaurants, and sports fields, to simple beach bars. A study by Altroconsumo, Italy’s largest consumer association, reports that the average cost this summer of a parasol and two sunbeds is €212 ($250) for a week. In a survey of 10 holiday destinations, Alassio, in Liguria, was the most expensive at €340 ($395), while Rimini was the cheapest at €150 ($175). A single day can cost between €20 ($23) and €40 ($46).

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