You could tell we were Brits, almost the only two people on our beach Saturday afternoon. With a strong south-easterly wind whipping up the waves and clouds racing over head, Contrada Cipolla changed character yet again. You'd be forgiven for thinking we were on a Yorkshire beach in November, except of course it was more than warm! There we were with our egg mayo sandwiches with the savoury addition of a sprinkling of sand, and almost completely alone.
But back at the house, just a few hundred metres away ..... no wind, baking heat and oh so high humidity, according to the news much higher than normal for this time of year. Without a doubt the beach was the best place to be.
And in typically British fashion we couldn't resist a dip in the sea. A sea with wave, big waves ..... well for us anyway, you couldn't exactly surf but great fun to jump around in. The Adriatic here is normally either as still as a millpond or only has little ripples of waves. And unlike Morecambe Bay the sea was warm.
Our beach, Lido Cipolla (yes that's Onion Bay) has been described as "undeveloped, narrow and shabby" by one recent visitor. I'm not sure what constitutes shabby for beach. Certainly it is completely uncommercialised, one of the things we like about it. No roach coaches (burger/hot dog wagons), sunbeds to rent, beach bars, karoke or other loud music. Just a few metres from the house the beach is, it's true, not over wide but plenty of room for us to set up camp even in the height of summer. We've even had a barbeque on the beach complete with table, chairs, tablecloth, the only things missing were the candles on the table and champagne bucket - next time!
Walk in one direction, towards Torre San Gennaro, and at that end you reach a nice bay. Walk in the other direction towards Lindinuso and at the other end where the beach is a lot more stoney, weather conditions allowing, you will rind the kite-surfing school.
For those that like things a little more sophisticated, Lindinuso, 10 minutes walk away offers the Bar Benny Lido and a little further on you will find Mosquito Beach, Exotic Beach and Sun Beach, all with bars, sunbeds and parosols to rent.
In fact the beach is a constantly changing landscape. In January and February the high tides wash in all the stones and pebbles and there is very little if any sand to be seen. In March, heaps of black seaweed are washed in, I keep intending to collect the seaweed to mulch the garden but have not done so yet. In April the tides wash out the seaweed and stones and by May we usually have a nice long sandy beach which stays with us through the summer. The local comune clean the beach (using a tractor) from late June to early September, and the Italians flock here in those months. At weekends in July/August it can be pretty busy but during the week, even then, there is always plenty of space. Unusually this year we had exceptionally high tides in late July, but we still managed to find space on the beach for our sunbed, chair and sun parasol!
As always here, my memory lets me down and I don't remember the October, November and December months. Bob just reminded me that we get lots of driftwood washed in, great offerings for the fire later in the year!
...... to be continued later this year
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