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The same beach, every year, for thirty years
Italian seaside vacations have a fixed shape that Alex's memory describes exactly. Most of the coast is divided into stabilimenti balneari — private beach clubs where you rent an umbrella and two loungers for the day, the week or the season — and families return to the same establishment, often the same numbered umbrella, for decades, so the neighbors on the sand are the same people every August. Free public beach, spiaggia libera, exists but is a minority of the coastline and usually less equipped. The rhythm of the day is equally fixed: beach in the morning, a long lunch, riposo, back to the sand around four when the sun has softened, then the passeggiata. Northern families historically went to the Adriatic riviera around Rimini, Romans go to Ostia or south towards Sperlonga, and those who could afford it went to the mountains — the Dolomites or the Alps — which is what Matteo's family did, and why he is being teased. Both traditions collapse into the same fortnight around Ferragosto, which is why the autostrada on the first Saturday of August is a national event.