Free beaches
52 places
Free beachesIsola
Posillipo
The "cursed" island: owners struck by suicides and misfortune (Agnelli, Getty); a marine protected area with submerged ruins; guided snorkelling with CSI Gaiola ~€20, glass-bottom boat ~€12; 150 steps.
Free beachesParco Sommerso della Gaiola
Posillipo
Two islets of tufo (volcanic tuff) joined by a fragile arch, a marine protected area: you swim above submerged Roman ruins while the legend speaks of a cursed island.
- Free beaches
Lido delle Monache / spiaggia libera di Posillipo e Riva Fiorita
Posillipo
Tiny coves among the rocks, once the bathing place of the nuns of a convent above the sea: almost secret free beaches, reachable mostly from the water.
- Free beaches
Baia di Trentaremi
Posillipo
A bay closed in by high cliffs of yellow tufo (volcanic tuff), with caves cut by the Romans: no road reaches it, only the sea and the kayaks slip in among the rocks.
- Free beaches
Capo Miseno e porticciolo di Acquamorta
Bacoli/Monte di Procida
The headland that closes the gulf and, at its foot, the little harbour of Acquamorta with the boats hauled ashore and the water shallow and clear.
Free beachesBaia di Ieranto
Nerano
The bay protected by the FAI that looks across at the Faraglioni of Capri, reachable only on foot among olive trees and scrub, with the clear water of an old quarry.
- Free beaches
Cala di Mitigliano e grotta
Massa Lubrense
A path through olive trees drops down to the rocks, Capri looks an arm's length away, and the cave opens in the water like a hall of shadow and salt.
- Free beaches
Fiordo
Massa Lubrense
A cleft in the rock where the sea slips in, narrow and green, almost always shaded beneath high walls: you don't come here for the sun, but for the silence.
- Free beaches
Marina di Crapolla
Massa Lubrense
Seven hundred steps down from Torca lead to a tiny landing place, where the chapel of San Pietro rests on Benedictine ruins and fishermen carve boat shelters out of Roman columns.
- Free beaches
Bagni della Regina Giovanna
Capo di Sorrento
The ruins of Pollio Felice's Roman villa look down on a natural pool, joined to the sea by a rock arch where the water changes colour with every hour.
- Free beaches
Marina del Cantone
Nerano
The widest pebble beach on the peninsula, where at sunset the restaurants serve the spaghetti alla Nerano born right here, between fried courgettes and provolone del monaco cheese.
- Free beaches
Recommone
Nerano
A few steps from Marina del Cantone, a small cove tucked among the rocks, with a watchtower on the headland and water that stays clear until late.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia di Tordigliano
Vico Equense/Positano
A long wild beach with no roads and no beach clubs, reachable only on foot from the main road: dark sand, Mediterranean scrub and the silhouette of Li Galli on the horizon.
Free beachesMarina di Seiano
Vico Equense
The little harbour of Vico Equense beneath the tufo (volcanic tuff) walls, with the fishermen's boats, the bathing clubs on the rocks and a reef that shelters the water from the wind.
- Free beaches
Marina Piccola
Capri
The beach on the southern side where the sun lingers until evening, with the Faraglioni in the background and the rocks where legend has the sirens sing.
- Free beaches
Scoglio delle Sirene
Capri
The rock that divides the two beaches of Marina Piccola, where legend places the song of the sirens that tempted Ulysses along this coast.
- Free beaches
Bagni di Tiberio / Palazzo a Mare
Capri
A small bay reached by boat, where the submerged remains of the seaside villa that belonged to the emperor Tiberius surface in the shallow water.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia del Pozzo Vecchio ("del Postino")
Procida
The dark-sand beach where Massimo Troisi filmed Il Postino, tucked below the cemetery and the tufo walls, with shallow water and the stillness of a film set never struck.
- Free beaches
Spiagge di Chiaia
Procida
A long stairway leads down to it: a broad stretch of sand and shingle sheltered by high tufo walls, with the fishing boats of the Corricella colouring the background.
- Free beaches
Chiaiolella
Procida
The crescent-shaped little harbour on Procida's gentler side, with moored boats, tables at the water's edge and the bridge that leads from here towards the island of Vivara.
- Free beaches
Baia di Cartaromana
Ischia
A small bay looking out on the Castello Aragonese and the Sant'Anna rocks, where thermal springs warm the sea and the Torre di Guevara keeps watch from the meadow above the water.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia di Fornillo
Positano
A path sheer above the sea leads away from the Spiaggia Grande to the pebble cove the people of Positano keep for themselves, in the shade of the torri saracene (Saracen watchtowers).
- Free beaches
Torre Trasita
Positano
The Saracen tower rising on the spur between the two beaches, a sentinel of stone now turned private home, closes every postcard of Positano.
- Free beaches
Fiordo di Furore
Furore
A strip of beach wedged between rock walls, beneath the bridge divers leap from; here Rossellini and Anna Magnani sought refuge.
- Free beaches
Baia di Erchie e spiaggia del Cauco
Maiori
A fishing village hidden between Cetara and Maiori, its narrow beach held between Saracen towers; the little cove of Cauco is reached only by swimming or by boat.
- Free beaches
Spiagge del Duoglio
Amalfi
Four hundred steps drop from the main road to a beach of pebbles and clear water, the hard-won prize for anyone wanting away from the crowds of Amalfi.
- Free beaches
Santa Croce
Amalfi
Reachable by sea or down a long stairway, a cove beside a rock arch the sea has hollowed out; the water here is the green of glass.
- Free beaches
Marina di Praia
Praiano
A cleft in the rocks holds a handful of fishermen's houses and a tiny beach; just beyond, in a cave over the sea, people dance at the Africana.
- Free beaches
Cala della Gavitella
Praiano
The only beach on the coast kissed by the sun until sunset, looking out towards Positano and Capri; you get there down hundreds of steps, or by boat.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia del Pozzallo
Camerota
A cove of white pebbles squeezed between dark cliffs and the clearest of seas, reached on foot along a path or by boat from Marina di Camerota.
- Free beaches
Spiagge del Marcellino, dei Gabbiani e della Sciabica
San Giovanni a Piro/Scario
Along the wild Costa della Masseta open pebble coves between rock walls, reachable by boat from the harbour of Scario, where the water stays crystalline and the shores almost deserted.
Free beachesPunta Licosa
Castellabate
A headland of holm oaks and Mediterranean scrub thrust out over the sea, with the islet and the lighthouse where legend places the siren Leucosia.
Free beachesArco Naturale di Palinuro e grotte di Capo Palinuro
Palinuro
An arch of rock mirrors itself in the water of Capo Palinuro, where the sea caves, first among them the Grotta Azzurra, set the sea alight with cobalt reflections.
- Free beaches
Piscina naturale degli Iscolelli
Camerota (SA)
Pools carved into the rock with a tongue of white pebbles, reachable only after twenty minutes of path from the headland: still water, crystal clear, with not a single sign to point the way.
- Free beaches
Sorgente di Santa Caterina
Costa Infreschi
Fresh water gushing from the rock and losing itself in a patch of emerald sea, among jagged rocks reached from the coastal path.
- Free beaches
Marina di Pisciotta + borgo di Pisciotta
Pisciotta (SA)
Below the village clinging to its hill of olive trees, the fishermen still lower the menaica net, and the marina smells of the anchovies that bear its name.
- Free beaches
Baia degli Infreschi
Marina di Camerota (SA)
Reachable only from the sea, among the cliffs of the Cilento the Baia degli Infreschi hides a cove of emerald water where cold freshwater springs surface among the waves.
- Free beaches
Cala Bianca
Camerota (SA)
Set among walls of white rock and Mediterranean scrub, reachable on foot or by sea, Cala Bianca offers pale pebbles and crystal-clear water in the wild heart of the Cilento.
- Free beaches
Baia del Buon Dormire
Palinuro (SA)
Reachable only from the sea, sheltered by high cliffs, the Baia del Buon Dormire owes its name to the shade that invites rest; before it, a rock shaped like a rabbit.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia dei Maronti
Barano d'Ischia (NA)
The island's longest beach, golden beneath walls of tufo (volcanic tuff), where in places the sand steams and the seawater warms itself.
- Free beaches
Baia di San Montano
Lacco Ameno (NA)
A crescent sheltered from the winds, with shallow, clear water turning turquoise: Ischia's gentlest bay, cradled between two green headlands.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia della Chiaiolella
Procida (NA)
On the island's western side, the broad sandy beach where Procida watches the sunset, with the fishermen's boats and Vivara closing the horizon.
Free beachesBaia di Erchie
Maiori (SA)
A handful of fishermen's houses and a snug beach cradled between the headlands, with a torre saracena (Saracen watchtower) at one end: one of the most secluded coves of the Costiera.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia della Chiaia (Forio)
Forio (NA)
The town's beach, where the people of Forio walk down from the alleys with a towel under their arm. At sunset the sun drops straight into the sea before the Torre del Soccorso.
- Free beaches
Cava dell'Isola
Forio (NA)
The only truly free beach on Ischia: no sunbeds, no rows of umbrellas, just dark sand and young people who stay in the water until eight in the evening, because here the sun dies in the sea and not behind the mountain.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia di San Francesco
Forio (NA)
Pale sand beneath the Zaro cliffs, with the little church of San Francesco standing guard. It's the beach Forio goes to when it doesn't feel like climbing the steps.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia dei Pescatori
Ischia (NA)
Boats hauled up on the sand between the sunshades, and the Castello Aragonese closing the horizon: it is still the working beach of the fishermen, who tolerate bathers between one net and the next.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia degli Inglesi
Ischia (NA)
A tongue of dark sand hemmed in between two headlands, reachable only on foot along a path that starts behind the harbour: almost no one gets there, and that is exactly the point.
- Free beaches
Scarrupata di Barano
Barano d'Ischia (NA)
The name says it all: scarrupata, meaning collapsed. A wall of coloured clays fallen into the sea, and at the bottom a beach of big pebbles that its own inaccessibility saved from concrete. For the people of Ischia it is a place of the soul.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia di Ciraccio
Procida (NA)
The longest beach on Procida, dark sand beneath cliffs of yellow tufo (volcanic tuff), and the lighthouse on the horizon. Walk a hundred metres and you leave everyone behind.
Free beachesSpiaggia delle Grotte e Scoglio Cannone
Procida (NA)
Below a wall of tufo hollowed out with man-made caves once used as boat shelters, with the Scoglio Cannone planted in front like a sentry. You get there down a stairway that seems never to end.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia e pineta di Baia Domizia nord
Cellole (CE)
Dark volcanic sand, a pine wood that comes almost down to the water and, to the north, the mouth of the Garigliano: right there, a thousand years ago, the Saracens planted their Italian stronghold, until in 915 a Christian league wiped them out after a three-month siege.