The warm charm of the beach lido The undisputed symbol of summer and Italian rebirth

Beach chair, umbrella, and sunscreen. The beachgoer's kit is as simple as it is full of rich aesthetic value. Rows of perfectly aligned loungers on a sandy board, colorful wedge umbrellas drawing a hypnotic pattern warmed by the summer sun. Regardless of whatever the shoreline may be, the establishment has always exerted a unique charm, that of a small world made up of regulars, bewildered tourists, and long days made up of "dolce far niente," those little rituals in which everyone has their place. The same cabin, the same sunbed, a small microcosm that welcomes thousands of bathers each year in a tradition that began in 1827 in Viareggio, followed sixteen years later by the "Stabilimento privilegiato dei Bagni Marittimi" in Rimini in a boom that soon led many other areas of the Romagna Riviera to equip themselves. Shortly thereafter other establishments sprang up in Livorno, on the Lido in Venice, on the Ligurian coast, in Naples, and Palermo.

If the beach became a habit in the summers of Italians, playful activities such as beach volleyball or snorkeling found space among the new hobbies of bathers. Fashion also allowed itself to be influenced first with the appearance of briefs until then understood only as undergarments, but especially the bikini, born in 1946 thanks to French designer Louis Réard. Arriving in Italy only in the 1950s, the two-piece uprooted the extreme sense of modesty in force up to that time, in which women's costumes, as well as men's, covered a large part of the body with few exceptions in models that uncovered the legs.