July 19, 2024
Tuscany, like all of the peninsula, has an amazing coastline that’s easy to get to from anywhere inland. Min has a nose for good beaches and has found a few here. Better still, Tuscany’s beaches are the preferred destination mostly of just locals since it doesn’t have the ‘all-worldly’ beauty of the Amalfi Coast (which I admit I’ve only seen in photos) and Cinque Terra (which we’ve seen with our own eyes). And like many things having to do with how to live well, Italians beach and beach well.
One can go for weeks, a weekend, or even just a day. We’ll be writing about the longer versions later, but yesterday we took our first beach day trip and here’s how it went.
First off, it had to involve public transportation since, alas, buying a car still alludes us. Again, I owe y’all a blog entry on that. Second, it had to involve a round trip in under 12hrs, preferably 10, since we have these dogs living with us. So we had to pick best public transport with max beach hours in a 10ish hour window.
From mid-June to mid-Sep there are ‘Linee Mare’ - beach buses. Again, beaching is part of Italian summer life and they morph public transportation to enable it. The buses leave Siena in the morning in the 7-8am hour, and return in the 8-9pm hour. 2hrs or so to our destination for yesterday - Castiglione della Pescaia. So one way on the Linea Mare, but not round trip as the day would be too long for the dogs.
It’s been hot here the last couple weeks (95-100 degrees F), so we picked the morning bus to get the relatively cooler late morning hours in at the beach. Out of the house by 7:25 to catch the local bus to where we could get the morning Linea Mare.
Beach Club - this is just how it’s done here. 40€ for two loungers, an extra chair, and an umbrella. Place to park our stuff and these clubs are right on the water as they all are. All have a proper bar and restaurant so all things needed for the day. I’ll spare y’all this weird phobia I somehow have about these places, maybe I’m getting over that. We got there 10am-ish: cappuccino, sun, the magically refreshing Mediterranean waters, and a pre-noon cocktail. Dolce vita baby. Lunch, more sun, more Med, more drink. Bagno Nettuno di Iacopo Vanni
Now to get home before dog bladders explode. We had researched several bus and train options prior, and have the Autolinee Toscane (bus) and Trenitalia (train) apps at the ready. While trains run very consistently on time, buses are a bit more erratic, but bus options connecting through Grosseto would get us there in the most timely fashion. Bus was the answer to max beach time.
First leg Castiglione della Pescaia to Grosetto ran a bit late but no stress. Beer in the train/bus station bar. Main bus line Grosseto to Siena next. Funny story about the bus driver - pegged us American walking up (were it the beers in our hands ?), and wanted to talk American politics. We hate talking about American politics. But it was all in Italian at breakneck pace all the way back to Siena, so we sat up front and were awash in his views and all he’s reading, free Italian speaking opportunity, and it made the ride home feel fast. He missed two people calling stops along the way because he was too distracted
Local bus home just a few short minutes to avoid walking on the last day of wicked heat (for now), in the door home by 6 - approx 10.5 hours and two very happy dogs awaiting our arrival.
We are sunburned and refreshed from the Mediterranean waters, and know now we can day trip there at the drop of a hat. Saw two more towns to check out along the way. This could turn into a weekly habit…
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