'Heavenly' Italian beach to charge entry fee to cut overcrowding

Visitors will soon have to pay to enjoy one of Sardinia’s most beautiful beaches as local authorities try to mitigate the damage done by overcrowding.

La Pelosa, a white sandy beach in Stintino, north-west Sardinia, has been described as a slice of heaven, attracting thousands of visitors each summer. However, environmental studies show that excessive numbers of beachgoers threaten the beach’s ecosystem, prompting Antonio Diana, the mayor of Stintino, to introduce entry tickets and set a cap on visitor numbers to 1,500 a day from next summer.

Diana told a council meeting on Monday that the measures would initially be implemented as a trial. “The money collected from the fee would help to pay for the beach’s supervision and maintenance,” he added.

Francesca Demontis, the local tourism councillor, said she was convinced that the measures would deliver a good result.

Smoking on La Pelosa has already been banned, as have traders. Beach towels and bags are also forbidden to stop bathers either unwittingly or intentionally removing sand. The theft of sand and shells from Sardinia’s beaches is a big problem and offenders can be fined up to €3,000 (£2,600).

Other popular areas of Italy are introducing entry tolls to stem overcrowding, such as Venice, where officials plan to charge day-trippers from July. Civita di Bagnoregio, a medieval village bordering Lazio and Umbria, introduced a fee in 2013 that it said had been extremely successful.