The
gay beach at Torre del Largo is a real eye-opener
The most beautiful and flawless men between
Florence and the coast flock here each weekend in the summer. Here they show
off their perfect bodies, socialize with friends, and generally lap up the sun.
The chatter of well-coiffed men (and women?) can be heard along the length of
the 4-mile beach in a slice of Italian culture far away from Florence's Duomo
or Pisa's famous leaning tower.
The Torre del
Largo lies 15 miles west of Pisa on the Ligurian coast. To Italians, it is one
of the closest resorts to Florence, Pisa, and Viarregio. And it is a low-key
resort, with campsites, small hotels, and intimate resorts. It is a place to
kick back, and it has a family atmosphere dotted with adventure playgrounds,
supermarkets, and bicycles-for-hire. Not to mention about 5 miles of deserted
sandy beaches ready for the taking.
The A12 motorway
between Pisa and Viareggio paralells the sea, and between this and the beaches
is the pineta, a vast pinewood about 1 mile wide and 10 miles
long. There is very sparse public transport to the beaches, which lie beyond
the pineta, so most people arrive by car. If you do take
public transport, take a bus going from Pisa (Piazza San Antonio) to Viareggio
and get off at Torre del Lago, where there is a city bus to the beaches. And
trails lead into the woods, taking 10 minutes to walk between the road and the
beach. I can honestly recommend sensible footwear. As the trail progresses, it
turns to sand, and, as I can testify, those of us wearing flip-flops found ourselves
floundering like we were walking on jelly.
There is only
100 yards of heath and scrub, and then there is the beach. This stretches for 5
miles along the coast, but the stretch after the pineta, is one of the famous gay beaches in Italy. Men
(and women?) come here after a hard night at Ma Ma Mia's). Here
they meet the friends, lay out in the sun, and gossip about what happened the
night before.
This is exactly
what we did. Our friends Stephano, Alessio, Luis, and Maurizio were already
there, and for hundreds of yards, there was just athletic-looking men
stretching in every direction. In Italy fashion is foremost, and most were
equipped in uniformly toned bodies, Speedos, and designer sunglasses. If you
didn't match these criteria, you really stood out.
But the main
attraction was the sun and surf, and the Ligurian Sea is beautifully warm.
African hawkers patrolled the beaches selling cold agua, watches, and cornetto's. But
there is a real sense of bonhomie on this beach, a sense of being together.
They will talk to you, and it is easy to strike up a conversation with
strangers. Tuscans adore living near the beach. As Maurizio told me, "We
Italians cannot survive without the beach in the summer."
I'd go along
with that.
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