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| Starting the day with caffè shakerato (ice coffee) at Fiumara Beach |
No doubt, my favorite time to hang out at Fiumara is the early evening. Grab your Prosecco and wait for the delicious fish to arrive whilst everybody else is swearing under their holiday apartment's lousy shower. Fiumara's beach can get busy with locals and tourists during the day, but it is an oasis of calmness at aperitivo time (happy hour).
Kite-surfers leave once the wind drops in the early evening, and everybody else seems to desert the beach once it's not sizzling hot anymore (I'll never understand it). Perfection really: with the wind gone you'll have the ideal temperature for an early evening swim and once dried off a marvelous view and sunset all to yourself.
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| Even the shower has style |
Should you not be able to get a table for dinner try for lunch, which is a simpler DIY affair from the counter, but food tastes still great and nobody worries if you look a bit disheveled from the waves (its a petty though that lunch comes in plastic containers - a choice I'll never understand, even more so in a place like this). However things change for dinner and Fiumara beach is definitely a good place to dress up for a proper summer fashion moment. If your budget is tight, skip the food altogether and just have a Campari or a cool beer after your swim in the sea - Fiumara beach is a great place to chill out, watch the sunset and listen to some Jack Johnson.
For the more sporty ones, kite- and windsurfing rent or lessons are available a bit further up on the beach. Fiumara also rents brollies and deckchairs, but they tend to be booked by hard-core aficionados all through the season.
If you want to say hello, I'll be the woman hanging out at the bar; no, not the one in the sexy bikini, the other one who's being pestered by her two ice-cream crazy children. In Italy school holiday lasts from mid June to mid September. So be prepared to run into a lot of desperate mothers at the beach. Fiumara is infact the perfect place to dine out with kids. With the enormous sandpit around them, they're more than happy to leave you to your fish (book a table 'in spiaggia', i.e. with your feet in the sand).
Fiumara restaurant and beach bar are open from mid April to mid September. Be sure to book well in advance as this place is loved by the locals.
Where: Just outside Marina di Grosseto (direction Castiglione della Pescaia)
Phone: +39 0564 34040